The New World
by LarissaValentiMeedachi2613
Summary: Arianwen Faye left Wales to visit her dad in Georgia. America was like a new world to her, it was like the world had suddenly become so much bigger. But when the apocalypse strikes she's going to feel extremely alone in the new world, maybe she'll get some help along the way. A family will be forged, trust will be tested, and love is complicated. R&R
1. I was born in a thunderstorm

**The New World** : Chapter one- I was born in a thunderstorm.

 _I was born in a thunderstorm, I grew up overnight. I played alone, I played on my own I have survived…_

 _-Alive by Sia._

Those three damn questions. I always used to know my answer to those exact three questions, Even if I were to answer them with a certain hesitancy, I always knew. But now… I'm not so sure.

 _How many walkers have you killed?_

 _How many people have you killed?_

 _Why?_

It's funny how much the world can change you, how people can change you. Before the world went to shit I always used to know what I was doing, sure life was hard and I had my fair share of screw ups thrown my way but I always had a backup plan. I was the one who thought ahead, I guess I was always a little socially awkward and I always thought of many ways in which I could royally fuck something up. So, of course, I was prepared for everything and anything, except of course the apocalypse. But hey, who the hell would be?

My name is Ariranwen Faye. Yes, yes I know its mouthful, but that's the cruelty of having an utterly welsh name. So let's just keep it as Reia Faye for short. Besides in a world like this who even cares about the importance of a name anymore?

* * *

I walked along the highway on my way to Atlanta, this was the supposed safe zone… yeah sure as if anywhere could possibly be safe anymore. I wiped the sweat from my brow as the hot sun beat down on me, there are no clouds in the sky and the city appears to be silent, this could have been a perfectly beautiful sunny day; truth is we never had weather like this back in wales, sure we had the sun but the temperature never really went above thirty degrees. That's why I came out here in the first place, to have a luxurious summer holiday _hah fat chance of that._

I also came to Georgia to visit my dad out here for the first time. My mum and dad had a divorce last year and apparently moving town wasn't a big enough distance for him so he moved all the way to America; that went down a treat with the family. My mother simply huffed and never spoke about it and my younger brother argued about it for weeks on end. So I was more or less an owl sending messages back and forth between them, I was starting to get fed up with it and I decided that I wanted to see my dad in person; I needed a break from my family's constant bickering.

I look over to my left and see all of the abandoned cars on the other side of the road, a shiver runs down my spine. This place definitely isn't screaming safe it just looks…empty. Maybe there's a centre further into the city or something.

I keep walking and I readjust the belt on my hips, I needed to find something else that could securely hold my weapons; this peace of makeshift shit just wasn't cutting it these days. I had my broadsword hanging from my left hip, a knife securely tucked into my pocket, two Sais attached to the back of my belt and finally a gun on my right hip. I've never even used the gun, to be honest, I'm too scared to use it. In wales, we don't have easy access to guns and I've never really felt the need to own a gun, I don't even know how to use the one that I have on me right now.

I stop on the road for a minute, when was the last time I ate? I feel a bit shaky from lack of food and drink so I walk over to the side of the road to try and sit in the shade. I take my bag off of my back and rummage around in there for my water bottle, I slowly pull it out and look at its contents. _Oh, bloody hell._ I've got about a quarter of a bottle left, this city better have a damn safety centre either that or I'm gonna have to raid someplace.I take three small sips of water I need to spare it until I find some more, I think I might literally kill someone for a cup of tea.

I shifted my sitting position so that my sword wouldn't dig awkwardly into my hip when I suddenly hear a thumping noise behind me. I instantly froze. _What if it's a dead head?!_ I slowly breathe in then out and stuff my belongings back into my bag and sling it over my shoulder. The wall separating the two lanes gave me some cover so I quietly unsheathe my sword and peer over the wall to find where the noise is coming from.

 _Huh._ I can't see anything, I don't see any dead people lurking around. But the gentle banging noise continues. It seems like it's coming from one of the cars, so I squint my eyes and try to distinguish which one it's coming from. I quickly check again for any dead heads and I jump over the wall, and onto the other side of the road, I hold my sword out a little in front of me with both hands gripping it as I approach the car that is making the noises. There's something in the back.

"Oh my god, please no," I whisper, as I come closer. There seems to be a child in the back, dead or alive I can't tell.

I walk to the side of the car and look in, and looking right back at me is a little boy, a very alive little boy with tears streaming down his face as he bats his hand against the glass at me.

I quickly sheathe my sword and move my hands to the door, "It's okay sweetie, I'm going to get you out okay?" I say to him as I try the handle, it's not budging though. I look back up to the boy he appears to be around five maybe six years old, he simply nods his head and his lower lip starts to tremble. I moved to the front doors and try to open them but still nothing works, the little boy's notices my struggle to free him and starts to sob.

"woah, woah hey you can't cry okay? We don't want any of those things to hear us now do we?" I offer him a small smile and he calms down a little. "Just don't worry, I'm gonna have to smash the glass."

I looked around me for something that could smash the window, I could do with a brick or something. Looking back at the wall I see large pieces of rubble scattered on the floor where a car drove into it. I sprinted towards the smashed up car and grabbed a decent sized rock and jogged back.

"okay," I smiled at the boy, "Let's do this shit." And I smashed the window.

 _Shit._ One thing I didn't account for was the fucking car alarm going off. The high pitched alarm rang out loud and clear for all to hear. I reached my arm into the car and the boy scrambled over the front seats and grabbed my arms. I wrapped my arms around his small frame and carefully pulled him out.

We need to get away before the dead heads arrive, so I put him down on the ground on the other side of the wall and jumped over. As soon as I touch down on the ground he wraps his arms around my middle and buries his face into my stomach.

My eyes widen and I stand there awkwardly not knowing what to do, "uhh," I bring an arm down and around his shoulders, "hey kid we have to get moving okay. My name's Reia, what's yours?" I ask.

He pulls away from me but still holds on just as tight, his big chocolaty brown eyes look into mine.

"m-my name is Alexandre." He says quietly with a very obvious French accent.

I smile once again and walk him across the road and away from the car that's probably attracting dead heads from everywhere.

"That's a nice name, mind if I call you Alex?" I ask politely as he starts to calm down, he wipes the tears from his face and nods his consent. "Right well I was heading over to the city, its safe there. How long have you been on your own?" I ask seriously. But Alex just stares at me. I crouch down to his level and look intently into his eyes.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?" he simply looks at me and gives a shrug.

"I do not English well." He mumbles and looks down at his shoes. Okay great, I more or less failed French in school. _Ugh._

"Okay." I say trying to keep things simple, I gesture around me "Not safe." I say and Alex looks back up at me so I point to the city "Safe." He looks over his shoulder at the city he seems to hesitate but turns back around and grabs my hand. He points to the city and tugs my arm, so we start walking again.

I keep a hold on his hand while I slip my bag off and take out the bottled water, immediately Alex's face brighten when he sees the water. I smile tenderly and pass it to him. _So much for saving it for later._

After receiving his fill Alex hands back the empty water bottle but suddenly stops in his tracks.

"What?" I look down at him, he's looking behind us so I turn around as well my hand instinctively drops to my sword readying to unsheathe it if need be. But through the waving hot air on the road there appeared to be a man, on a damn horse.

"Well hello, cowboy." I smirk to myself, I push Alex behind me to protect him from the stranger's gaze and I once again rest my hand upon my sword.

The apparent Sherriff- by the looks of his uniform- slows the horse to a stop, "Excuse me, ma'am, I mean you no harm." He says with a southern drawl, he tips his hat slightly to me. "Where is it that you're heading? The city?" he asks. There's something about him that I can't quite put my finger on, he seems reliable as if he is a natural born leader. He gives off this trustworthy vibe.

I squint against the sun and look into his honest blue eyes, "yes… we're going to the city. It's supposed to be safe there." I say sheepishly to the man, he raises his eyebrows at me slightly; must be my accent.

"I'm also heading there, maybe we could help each other out. I have guns and ammo I can help protect your boy until we get to the safe zone." He nods his head towards Alex and I frown.

"He's not mine, I literally just found him. He doesn't seem to know an awful lot of English…do you speak French by any chance?" I smile a little bit up at the man before me.

He laughs a little at my attempt to lighten the seriousness in the atmosphere, "No I can't say that I do. I'm Rick, Rick Grimes. And you are?" he asks lightly.

I toss my short black curls back out of my face, "Reia Faye, nice to meet you, Rick. This little guy is Alexandre." I say, Alex steps around me and walks up to Rick. He smiles up at him and pets the horse.

"Hi, Alex. How old are you?" Rick asks the young boy trying to make conversation. Alex just stared up at rick for a minute and thinks before answering in English.

"Seven?" he asks and then he giggles a little.

I walk up to Rick as well now sensing that he posed no immediate threat, "Do you have any water? Alex was stuck in that car over there for god knows how long, I gave him what I could but-''

Ricks Cuts me off by handing a water bottle down to Alex, I breathe a sigh of relief, "Thanks." I say.

"So Reia huh? That short for anything?" he asks.

I let out a huff of a laugh, "yeah, but it's nothing you need to concern yourself with Sherriff Grimes." I say in what is apparently a rather shitty southern drawl. Rick simply laughs at me.

After that it was arranged that Alex would sit in front of Rick on the Horse, he appeared to be exhausted from lack of food and water. So I ended up walking alongside Rick we even made small talk; just the usual stuff like where do you live, where do you come from, got any family. Rick told me how he was looking for his wife and son. I went quiet when he started to talk about his family. My dad was gone, he went around about in the beginning of when the world turned to shit, and I didn't even know what to think about my mum and brother back in Wales. I had cried over that many times before, I cried over all the unanswered questions.

As we finally approached the city I drew my sword just in case there were any dead heads around.

The city was quiet, all I could hear was the horse's footfalls they seemed too loud as if the noise was trying to drill into my head forever. Yeah, it's definitely too damn quiet out here.

I grabbed the reins and stopped the horse, Rick looked down at me questioningly.

"Rick I don't like this, it's too quiet. Surely any safe zones with people- Very _alive_ people- would make some noise. This place looks like a ghost town." I say quietly but with enough force that Rick stops to consider my opinion.

He takes in a breath before answering, "I don't hear the walkers either, if it makes you feel better I'll ride on up ahead a few paces in front. But I have to see for myself, I need to know if my family's safe." He says, he waits to see my reaction. I shake my head at the ground before answering.

"Fine, but I want Alex with me. If we have to run I'd feel better with him in my arms." Rick tries to speak again but I cut him off, "No, this is your crazy idea I'm not having that little boy with you while you play Captain Stupid, he stays with me. I understand you want to find your family but if you get me killed I'll haunt your arse." I say with a slight smirk. Rick sighs at me but puts his arms around a very confused looking Alex and hands him to me.

"Okay Alex, you stay with me." I say simply to him, hoping to whatever God that's out there that he understands what I'm saying. "Always hold my hand." In answer, he takes my hand and holds it tightly and I let out a sigh of relief and smile down at him. Rick rides ahead a few paces and I hold my sword tighter.

We walk through the deserted streets of Atlanta City, I look at the huge empty buildings around me. I couldn't help but think about coming here with my dad, he had planned to take me around America and Atlanta happened to be on the list of places to go. I stared at the empty streets and imagined them gushing with people, it would be a hot summers day like this I would be sitting inside some corner café by a window with the sun streaming in while I read a book, or talked to my dad about Uni. I wanted to laugh at myself, I could almost smell the coffee from that peaceful little café. Its Alex who pulls me out of my reverie with a panicked look on his face.

"Reia!" he exclaims and points at two dead heads getting off of a blown apart bus, Ricks horse jumps back from them. I rush forward with my sword already drawn and I take them down, one blow across the head with the blade always does the trick, I puked the first few times when I had to kill the dead heads. Now I simply grimaced and tried to wipe the blood off of my beloved sword. I looked down at Alex to see that he'd turned rather pale and looked like he was about to be sick.

I ran my hand over his blonde head and tugged him along, I only just noticed that Rick had run ahead on the horse.

"What are you doing?" I called after him, he was about to turn out of sight when the horse reared back and started galloping back our way.

"Run!" Rick shouts at me, and then I saw the huge herd of Dead Heads running after him, His voice was consumed by the snarling of the dead.

"Oh, Shit."

* * *

 **Hi** , **guys! so this is my first walking dead fanfic! so let's just get two things clear in case you were struggling:**

 **Ariranwen is pronounced as eye-ree-ann-when, and Reia is pronounced as Re-ah kind of like Leah.**

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter, things will start to pick up in the next chapter I promise. I can't forget that My lovely friend Niamh helped convince me to write this story and gave her input, Thank you!**

 **Thank you all for reading, please review because I love hearing from you.**

 **Until next time,**

 **Larissa xx**


	2. Stolen Car

**Chapter two: Stolen Car**

" _And I'm driving a stolen car_

 _On a pitch black night_

 _And I'm telling myself I'm gonna be alright_

 _But I ride by night and I travel in fear_

 _That in this darkness I will disappear"_

 _~Stolen car, Bruce Springsteen._

* * *

"Oh shit." I whisper as the dead scramble their way towards us, I grab Alex's hand and turn to run in the opposite direction like Rick said only to see another herd of deadheads snarling at us. I froze in fear.

 _There's too many…Oh my God, I'm going to die today. This is happening, this is it._

Alex frantically shook my arm and repeatedly called my name and I snapped out of my dark thoughts. It was fight or flight, looks like it's gonna be flight. I quickly checked my surroundings and saw that Rick and the horse were surrounded, and the poor horse was rearing back trying to shake off the dead that were desperately trying to rip into its flesh.

One of the deadheads got a little too close for comfort, I span around and decapitated him while Alex screamed at the horror of everything happening around us. I scooped him up in my arms and he wrapped his arms tightly around my neck.

Then I saw a tank, the hatch on top was wide open, I kicked away two more of the dead and saw that Rick was now on the floor. He was also struggling to fight them all off luckily for him most were distracted by the horse to notice him.

"Rick! Get to the tank!" I yell at him and we lock eyes for a brief moment and then we both spring into action.

I run to the tank and I dodge the deadheads as best as I can, I more or less throw Alex onto the tank and he cries out for me.

"Climb!" I order harshly as I make my way up, suddenly a hand clamps around my foot.

I turn to look at the deadhead and see that she barley has a jaw left, and what _is_ there is dangling by a piece of flesh from her cheek. I gagged a bit and screamed as she tried digging her teeth into my leg. I quickly pulled the small knife I had out of my pocket and swiftly drove it into her eye. She immediately went limp and I freed my leg from her grasp.

"Reiaaa!" Alex cried, so I turned back around and pushed him towards the open hatch, turns out I pushed him to hard and he fell right through the opening. I wince as I hear him hit the floor but I climb in after him as more hands reach for me I close the hatch. All I can hear is thumping from above as they try to get in. Then Alex screams.

 _There's a freaking deadhead in here!_ I run across the small floor space of the tank as the dead soldier gets his hands on Alex, with my knife still in hand I grab the soldier by his hair and I slam the knife downwards into his skull. Alex pushes him off and cries even louder. I fall to the floor in front of him and tightly embrace the young boy while he cries, until I remember Rick. _Shit, Rick!_

Amongst all the noise and Alex's cries, I can hear snarls coming from under the tank followed by Gunshots. Holy shit he's under the tank, the noise moves along under the tank towards the other end. I let go of Alex and move along with the noise to the hatch on the floor. I yank on the handle and it flies open. I see rick with the gun to his head and I scream at him.

"Get Inside!" I shout at him and my voice cracks slightly.

His eyes shoot open and his mouth opens to form the perfect 'O' when he sees me above him, I reach my arms down through the hole and pull him in. Rick slams the door behind him and collapses onto the floor breathing frantically. As the adrenaline leaves me I start to shake uncontrollably so I slide down the wall and crumple to the floor. Alex slowly walks over to me now that his crying has finally ceased and he crawls onto my lap and hugs me tightly, I take in a few shaky breaths as I ponder who is comforting who.

I look over to Rick who's still panting, he looks at the dead soldier and back to me, "Oh God." He whispers and looks to the ceiling of the tank.

And in spite of everything I manage to let out a breathy laugh, "Yeah, I have a sneaking suspicion he's not gonna be helping us anytime soon darling."

Rick clenches his jaw and closes his eyes.

"How many rounds have you got?" he asks me.

I frown, "what? Like, as in bullets?" I ask.

Rick opens his eyes and faces me, "Yes, as in bullets. We need everything we've got, I dropped the damn bag." He says seriously.

I shift Alex around and pull my gun out of its holster, the weight of it feels foreign to me. I frown down at the weapon in my hand and I pass it to Rick.

"Umm… I don't know." I say slowly, "I've never used one before." Rick actually takes his sweet time to just stare blankly at me for a moment until he opens the chamber to see that it's empty. I look down at the floor when I realise that I've been carrying around a useless gun that was empty of bullets.

Rick drops the gun on the floor and looks at the dead soldier, he pulls out the gun that's strapped to his vest and checks the ammo. I lean my head back against the wall and hold Alex against me tighter.

"Rick," I whisper and he looks at me, "We're royally fucked." I close my eyes and listen to the dead pounding away at the tank. Rick says nothing and bends over to rest his head on his hand. We're all silent for a long time, each of us simply lost in our own world. This is looking bad, like really bad.

I feel Alex tremble in my arms, I start to runs my hands over his hair soothingly and whisper sweet nothings in his ear. The long silence stretches out so I start to sing a welsh lullaby that I was taught in nursery, It was about the colours of the rainbow. I sing the song in a bit of a daze, I couldn't stop thinking about my childhood and my family. I remember this one time in the summer when I was about 15 years old, we had all gone to Tenby for the day; mum and Dad were together then and we were a perfectly happy family. My little brother Ryan was five then. I remember running and throwing him over my shoulder as I charged across the beach and into the sea, he was giggling like a loon and screaming with laughter. I had smiled as I looked back at Mum and Dad sitting on the sand waving at us, my dad's arms were wrapped around my mother.

Everything in that moment was perfect, but at last, the song had come to an end and a lone tear rolled down my cheek. And that's when I jumped.

A loud static noise filled the tank, it was a radio!

"Hey you…dumbasses… yeah, you guys in the tank… you cosy in there?" a male voice said.

I almost laugh, I can hear the smirk in the man's voice.

* * *

Rick rushes forward and whacks his head against the ceiling, he merely grunts and carries on towards the radio.

"Hey! You alive in there?" The guys over the radio ask's.

Rick practically shouts into the radio, "Hello? Hello!?" Alex climbs out of my lap and walks over to Rick and I follow. We all stand around the radio eagerly awaiting for a reply.

Even the man on the other end seems to sigh in relief at hearing Ricks voice, "there you are. You had me wondering." The man says.

Sweat drips down my brow and I wipe it away hastily, then I remember the tears that had streamed down my face and I wiped them away too as I take in a shaky breath.

"Where are you? Are you outside?" Rick asks frantically, "Do you see us right now?"

There's a brief pause before the man replies, "Yeah, I can see you. You're surrounded by walkers… that's the bad news."

"Huh, you think so?" I say sarcastically knowing that he can't hear me.

"Reia, please," Rick says quietly, "There's good news?" he asks hopefully and he looks up at me.

I shake my head at Rick, there can't possibly be good news we're surrounded.

"…No." the man replies, I shake my head again and look down at the ground, Alex just looks confused as he tries to pick out parts of the conversation that he understands.

Rick says a bit harshly, "look, whoever you are I don't mind telling you that I'm a little concerned over here. We have a child with us."

"Oh man, you should see from over here, you'd be having a major freak out." He says.

I step forward and snatch the radio from Rick's hands, "did you not here the man? We have a child with us, have you got any useful advice for us?" I ask pleadingly but with a little bit of irritation leaking into my voice.

"Yeah. I'd say make a run for it." He says.

Rick and I look at each other for a moment, Rick glances down at Alex before taking the radio out of my hands.

"That it? Make a run for it?" he asks as I try to slow my breathing.

Holy shit I can't do this. We barely got inside the tank how are we gonna get out?!

"My plans not as dumb as it sounds. You got eyes on the outside here. There's one geek still up on the tank but the others have climbed down to join the feeding frenzy where the horse went down." He says quickly, I wince at the mention of the horse. "You guys with me so far?" he asks.

Rick looks at me and all I can do is nod my head, _fuck it, this is our only option._

"So far." Rick says

"Okay the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded, if you move now while they're distracted, you stand a chance." He says, his voice is all serious now, "You got ammo?" he asks.

Rick and I look around the tank my eyes landed on the only useful gun we had, I walk across the tank and pick up my empty gun and place it back in its holster.

"In that duffle bag I dropped out there and guns, can I get to it?" Rick asks eagerly as sweat drips down his face.

The man replies instantly, "Forget the bag, Okay? It's not an option. What do you have on you?"

"Hang on." Ricks says and he starts to gather everything and anything he can find around the tank.

I kneel down in front of Alex and I place my knife in his hand, "Listen hon, we're going out." I point upwards at the hatch and I wrap his finger around the handle, "use this, aim for the head. Only, if you need to."

Alex looks pale, "ok." He says quietly.

I nod at him, "do you understand?" I ask

"Aim for the head." He says in the same small voice, and he points to his temple.

I place my hand on his cheek, "good boy, be brave." I bring the two Sais from the back of my belt and hook them into the front so that I can pull them out at a moment's notice. I turn back to Rick and see him pick up a grenade.

"You have got be shitting me." I say and he turns back to me and simply shrugs.

"Yeah. Yeah," he whispers before racing back to the radio, "I got a Beretta with one clip, fifteen rounds."

There's a pause before he answers, "make 'em count. Jump off the right side of the tank keep going in that direction, there's an ally in that street, fifty yards, be there."

Rick and I nod, "hey what's your name?" I ask.

"Have you been listening?" he questions, "you're running out of time." And that's it, it's time to go.

"Ooh this shit, fuck this shit. Fuck me, fuck me. Argh fuck this shit, let's go." I say internally apologising to my mother for my colourful language.

Rick pulls a shovel and a crowbar off the wall and hands the crowbar to Alex, which should give him a better chance at getting away from the deadheads than the actual knife. Rick takes in a few deep breaths.

"Ready?" I ask as my hand tightens on my sword. Rick replies by jumping and opening the hatch and climbing out, I follow suit and I squint my eyes against the sun. I look around as I get out, that guy was right most of the deadheads are swarming an area a little away from the tank, guess that's the horse. Rick smacks a deadhead upside the face with a shovel and it falls backwards with a grunt. I turn around and help Alex out, I draw my sword and we all run and jump off the tank, Rick stumbles and falls on impact so I grab his arm and pull him back up. We run across the street with Rick leading the charge as he fires at the deadheads, I keep a mental note of how many shots he's taken. Alex runs in front of me and I bring up the rear, I can hear them snarling and moaning behind me. I spin around blindly with my sword arm out and I feel it slice into about three deadheads before I continue running.

"There's the alley!" Rick calls out.

I lunge forward and strike down a walker that gets too close to Alex as we round the corner into the alley. Rick Points his gun at a Korean guy.

"Woah! Not dead!" he screams at Rick, so this is the guy from the radio, "c'mon, c'mon!" He shouts and runs down the alley.

"Move, move, move!" I scream, I turn to close the gate behind us but its already too late, there're tons of deadheads behind us so I carry on running. Rick takes two shots at them to slow them down but it doesn't help really.

"c'mon!" shouts the Korean man, I run forward and pick Alex up as he starts to fall behind. The man in front starts to climb up a ladder. I pray to God that Alex understands me.

"Alex get on my back!" I shout as I reposition him in my arms, he climbs around my side as I slow down a bit and he wraps his legs and arms around me. I sheath my sword and I start to climb up the ladder after the other guy. Rick stops below us to shoot the deadheads down when he runs out of bullets.

"What are you doing?" shouts the man above me, Rick looks up and starts to climb.

We finally reach the platform above, I put Alex down now that we're out of harm's way.

"Well done, good boy." I say to him, I also notice that he kept the knife and heavy crowbar in hand. I look down as Rick joins us on the small platform. Each of us looks down at the growling deadheads below as we gasp for breath.

"Nice moves Clint Eastwood, are you the new Sherriff?" he asks mockingly, "come riding in to clean up the town."

Rick huffs a sigh and looks at him, "wasn't my intention." He says.

"Yeah well whatever, _yeeha,_ your still a dumbass." He replies, and looks up at the other ladder leading to the roof.

"I'm Rick." Rick says introducing himself and offering his hand.

"Glenn." He says and shakes Ricks hand

Glenn turns to me and I offer him a small smile, "Reia Faye. This here's Alex, he doesn't speak a whole lot of English"

Glenn flashes a cheeky smile my way, "Hi, I'm Glenn Rhee." He offers his hand to me eagerly and Rick smirks at the exchange. I can't help but laugh at Glenn as I take his hand. Glenn looks down at Alex and smiles at him, "Hey big guy, you did good down there." He tells him.

Alex smiles a little through his shaken state, "hello Mr. Glenn." he says politely which causes us all to smile a little.

Glenn turns back to Rick who nods at him, "Thank you." He says.

Glenn nods, "your welcome." Rick puts his gun into Glenn's back pack and takes the crowbar out of Alex's grasp and drops it down the side of the platform, "Oh no." Glenn says.

I follow his gaze down to the deadheads and see that one of them has figured out how to climb the ladder. I look back up at the ladder leading to the roof, holy shit that's a long way up. _I don't think I can carry him up there._

"well," Glenn says, "the good news is that it'll probably be the fall that kills us." He glances back at me as I kneel down in front of Alex "I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy."

"Okay," I say, "Can you climb?" I ask and point at the ladder. Alex takes a minute to look up the wall at the ladder before turning back to me.

"I can do it." He says confidently and I smile at him. Glenn has already started to climb up the ladder so I bring Alex forward.

"I'm right behind you." I say to him as he too makes his way up. I turn to Rick, "You good?" I ask him as I place my hand on the first rung of the ladder.

Rick nods "As good as I can be in this day and age."

I laugh, "Same."

* * *

We follow Glenn and run across the roofs, I ran with Alex in my arms once again. He was getting more and more tired as time went by, climbing to the roof had really taken it out of him. I recon he just needs food, water, and rest. Hopefully, Glenn had someplace safe to take us to.

"Hey, Glenn? Back in the tank, why did you stick your neck out for us?" I ask, I readjust Alex in my tired arms.

Rick and Glenn open up a door on the roof and Glenn takes off his bag and throws it down through the open door. "Call it foolish naivety, I would hope that if I'm ever that far up shit creek somebody might do the same for me." He says and starts to climb down yet another ladder, "Guess I'm an even bigger dumbass than you two." He says and climbs down.

Alex huffs when he sees the ladder, "I know kiddo, I know. I think this is the last one for a while." I say and I set him down. He walks towards the ladder with a sour face and climbs down after Glenn, Rick looks at the stroppy seven year old and smiles a little. He's probably thinking about his son, I place my hand on his shoulder before I too make my descent. Rick follows and closes the door behind us.

Glenn takes my hand as I drop down to the floor, I nod at him and I pick up Alex and we all run to follow Glenn through the building and towards a fire exit door. Thank god, this time its stairs. We run down the shaded area and Glenn pulls out his walkie-talkie.

"I'm back! I got guests, plus more geeks in the alley." He says as we continue running down the stairs. I almost run into the men when they suddenly stop.

"What?" I ask, but then I see two deadheads blocking our way, they growl and stumble towards us. My hand comes down to my sword when the door behind them bursts open to reveal two men in something that resembles SWAT gear, they run to the deadheads with their baseball bats in hand and start to beat them down. So we run forward towards the door and Glenn looks back at the men beating down on the deadheads, "Morales! Let's go!" he shouts and runs through the doorway. I see the two men run up behind me as Ricks pulls me inside.

We walk into another room when suddenly a blonde woman slams Rick into the wall and pulls a gun on him. I practically drop Alex as I draw my sword.

"I'll kill you!" she shouts at Rick. I place the sword against her throat.

"I wouldn't count on it." I say quietly without taking my eyes off her, everyone in the room tenses.

Morales steps forward, "Chill out Andrea back off." He says.

"Ease it." Says another woman.

"You're kidding me right?" Andrea says, she squints her eyes at Rick, "We're dead because of these stupid assholes."

"Rude." I say to her as I keep my arm extended I'm not easing up until she eases up. Morales looks at me and slowly walks up to Andrea's side.

"Andrea. I said back. The. Hell. Up." He says with authority.

"You heard the man, don't think I won't use this." I say as the blade makes contact with her throat, I keep my voice quiet and monotone. She finally turns and locks eyes with me, I stare right back until she finally moves and I lower the sword, I step in front of Rick just in case she feels like having another rage quit. I glance over my shoulder and see that Glenn has his hand on Alex's shoulder, Okay he's safe. I bring my attention back to the blonde who's shaking her head.

"We're dead. All of us." She says simply and looks around at her group, "Because of you." She says and looks at Rick who steps out from behind me.

"I don't understand." He says and Morales roughly grabs Ricks arm.

"Look," he says and marches rick through the department store, I grab Alex's small hand in my own and follow the two men in front, "We came into the city to scavenge supplies, you know what the key to scavenging is?" he pushes Rick forward. "You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing. Not shooting up the streets like it's the OK corral."

The group and I finally come to a stop in the centre of the store, "every geek from miles around heard you!" Another man said. I look at the glass doors at the front of the store to see deadheads pushing up against the glass.

"You just rang the dinner bell." Andrea says to us.

Alex lets out a moan before stepping behind me and hugging his body to my leg, "oh for fuck sake." I whisper to myself when I see them all pounding away at the glass.

"Yeah," Morales says to me, "you get the picture now?"

"Reia!" Alex says loudly and pulls me back as he tries to run away, the rest of the group seems to agree with him as the growling and moaning intensifies we all run towards the back of the store. Andrea grabs my arm and looks intently at me.

"What the hell were you lot doing out there anyway?" she asks as I pull my arm out of her grip, Rick cuts me off before I can answer.

"Trying to flag the helicopter." He says with his eyes on the doors.

I frown, "what helicopter? Is that why you ran off, for some make believe helicopter!?" I raise my voice at him.

The black man with the hat also weighs in, "Helicopter? Man, that's crap, ain't no damn helicopter." He says. Rick opens his mouth to speak but I interrupt.

"Rick you were chasing a hallucination, you were imagining things, that happens." I say as I bring my voice down a bit, screaming and shouting at each other certainly wasn't going to help the situation.

"I saw it!" he exclaims.

I raise my hands in a surrender gesture, "Woah okay, no need to bite my head off."

"Yo, T-Dog can you try that CB, contact the others?" Morales asks the man who's supposedly called… T-dog, Rick looks away from me and turns his questioning gaze to Morales.

"Others?" he asks hopefully, "The refugee centre?"

 _Really Rick? You honestly think_ there's _still a refugee centre in this hell hole?_ I know that I sound harsh but I can't help it.

"Yeah, a refugee centre." Says the black woman with a pixie cut, "they got biscuits waiting at the oven for us." She says sarcastically.

I look back over at T-dog who appears to be struggling with the radio, "Got no signal, maybe up on the roof." Almost as if to punctuate his sentence I hear gunshots above us and we all look up, what the hell!? Alex grips my hand tighter.

"Oh no. Is that Dixon?!" Andrea exclaims, everyone looks at each other and bolts to the stairs, Alex and I exchange a shrug and follow them up, I pat Glenn's shoulder as I pass him he frantically waves Rick over.

"C'mon let's go!" he says.

More gunshots ring out as we plunder up the stairs and I pick Alex back up a door opens above us and the group runs out onto the roof. Once I reach the top I place Alex back down, "Stay behind me." I tell him and he nods. He takes his position behind me as I walk out onto the roof, my eyes immediately lock onto an erratic redneck who's laughing his arse off while taking shots at the deadheads below.

"Oh jeez." Andrea mumbles.

The redneck turns around and waves the gun about in the air, "Hey! You ought to be more polite to a man with a gun. Huh?" he jumps down from his vantage point, "only common sense." He smiles at everyone, I place my hand on the hilt of my sword and push Alex further behind me and out of sight.

T-dog storms up to the smiling redneck, "Man! You're wasting bullets we ain't even got!" he shouts angrily, "and you'll bring 'em all down here on our asses! Just chill."

 _Uh oh, male testosterone level have sky rocketed, ugh men…_

Dixon takes a step close as well and spreads his arms out questioningly, "hey, bad enough I got this taco bender on my ass all day," he gestures to Morales and I widen my eyes at his words, "Now I'm gonna take orders from you? I don't think so, bro. That'll be the day." He says, he and T-dog are almost chest to chest, I tense ready to spring into action if need be.

T-dog squints his eyes at him, "That'll be the day? You got something you want to tell me?"

"Hey, T-dog man-"Morales tries.

"No!" T-dog shouts.

"Merle just relax okay? We got enough trouble." Morales says, I look at Glenn who looks more on edge than when we were running from the deadheads, he catches my eye and shakes his head at me when I take a step forward. I nod in reply and stand my ground.

"You want to know the day?" Merle asks quietly, seriously this guy's mouth doesn't seem to stop running.

"What?" T-dog asks.

"I'll tell you the day 'Mr. YO'. It's the day I take orders from a nigger." He states and honestly I gasped, I have never actually heard someone dish out racial abuse so freely before. Suddenly they're at each other's throats, T swings at Merle but he dodges and smacks the butt of his gun into his face. Everyone starts shouting and Morales runs forward only to be pushed back, Rick also gets pushed back and he slams face first into the metal piping behind him.

I turn to Alex, "stay, stay here." I tell him.

"Okay." He replies, I turn around as the shouting intensifies, Merle is currently beating the shit out of T-dog, and he jumps on top of T-dog and starts to pound his fists into his face.

 _Fuck this._

I jump into a run as Merle draws another gun out, I hit a fairly good speed before slamming into Merles back, I twist my body in the air and he lands beneath me, I draw my sword and press it against his throat, the blade faces his chin and I place my hand down on the cool metal so that it digs in. Both of my feet are firmly pressing down on his arms and I apply most of my weight to his chest just to make it that tad bit more uncomfortable for him.

Then I feel a wetness hit my neck and I flinch a little but I don't ease up. _Did he? Did he just fucking spit on me!?_ I squint my eyes at him and lean in closer towards his face, he lets out a strangled yelp when I apply an insane amount of pressure on his throat. His eyes widen as he struggles to breathe so I take the opportunity that's been given to me. I spit in his eye. Yup, I just spat in his eye, a bitter satisfaction comes over me and I ease back a little so that he can gain his breath.

"Look hear _Merle_ , I don't particularly like the way it is that you're carrying on. And I don't think your group quite appreciates it either." He just stares at me dumbfounded and I let out a sigh, "Fine I take it that these words are a little too big for you to understand." I pause, "Stop being a basic piece of shit, your pissing me off turd blossom."

He looks down, "sorry queen Elizabeth." He mumbles sarcastically.

I put pressure on his throat again and I notice that the group has gone silent, "I'm Welsh, not English. Don't get them confused again." I whisper with a smile, "Don't you know that you should be a little bit more polite to a pissed off bitch who has a sword to your throat?" I ask.

Merle Glares up at me but remains silent.

I smirk.

I totally won.

* * *

 **Hello again!**

 **what did you think of this chapter? Please let me know in your review it always puts a smile on my face when I hear from you! Which leads me to my second point:**

 **GILYFLOWER: Thank you so much! Here's another chapter x**

 **GALWIDANATITUDE: thank you so much! You're my first reviewer for this fic and you made me smile! ;) x**

 **Of course thank you all for fav or following Ariranwens journey! Finally a big thank you Niamh (you know why!)**

 **Until next time,**

 **Larissa.**


	3. Stolen car (part:II)

**Chapter Three: Stolen Car (Part II)**

" _And I'm driving a stolen car_

 _On a pitch black night_

 _And I'm telling myself I'm gonna be alright_

 _But I ride by night and I travel in fear_

 _That in this darkness I will disappear."_

 _~Stolen Car, Bruce Springsteen._

* * *

So it was decided that _Merle_ was to be handcuffed to the roof. Now, I say decided but it was more like Rick storming towards Merle with a deep frown set on his face and silently cuffing him to the roof. After searching him for any weapons Rick pulled something out of his pocket and snorted.

"You got something on your nose there." He says to Merle, he punctuates his sentence by flicking the redneck's nose.

"What you gonna do, arrest me?" Merle asks sarcastically. I roll my eyes when I see the drugs in Rick's hand, "Hey what are you doing!?" Merle shouts as Rick throws the drugs over the side of the building, the group and I remain silent as we watch Merle squirm.

"Man that's my stuff!" he shouts louder, "hey! If I get loose you better prey-

"Oh, do shut up." I interrupt, the thunder rolls in the distance and I turn to look at the storm that's approaching, Alex walks to my side and stares at Merle who is struggling against the cuffs while practically screaming his head off. I can hear Morales and Rick talking off to the side of me.

"You're not Atlanta PD are you?" Morales asks, "where are you guys from?"

Rick lets out a small huff, "Up the road a ways." He says simply, "Reia is from wales in the UK and Alex is from France."

Morales nods his head and takes in the information, "well officer friendly from up the road a ways, welcome to the big city." He says sarcastically. I look down at the city and at the deadheads crowding the streets. Alex slips his hand into mine, I look down at him and stroke his hair back just the way I used to do to my baby brother. Alex closes his eyes at the small comfort and sighs a bit I can't help but smile at him. Morales and Rick walk back to the rest of us, Rick takes his place by me and looks down at the young boy. He was the same age as Carl, Just another reminder of his mission to find his wife and son.

"How's that signal?" Morales asks T-dog.

T-dog immediately replies, "Like Dixon's brain, weak." I must admit that man does make me smirk. I look over at the redneck who's gracefully flipping the bird at us.

"Keep trying." Ricks says adamantly.

Andrea turns to Rick and I, "why? There's nothing they can do. Not a damn thing." She huffs and walks away from the wall and I frown.

"We got some people outside the city," Morales explains, "there's no refugee centre, that's just a pipe dream." Morales looks back at me, "I'm sorry."

"Then she's right," I say and nod my head at Andrea, "It's up to us to find our own way out." I look at Rick who nods his approval. I hear laughter behind me and we all turn around to look at Merle who finally appears to be comfortable where he is.

"Good luck with that." He snorts, "These streets ain't safe in this part of town, that what I've heard. Ain't that right sugar tits?" he turns his attention to Andrea who's checking her bag, "hey, honeybunch. What'd you say we go off somewhere and bump some uglies."

I roll my eyes, "I think the woman has standards sweet cheeks. Just cause the world's ending doesn't mean there slipping anytime soon." I tell him. Merle squints his eyes at me before turning his head to take in the view of Andreas behind. Andrea gets up with her bag in hand and simply walks away without uttering a word, however, she nods at me slightly in a small thanks.

"So," I say, changing the subject, "the streets _clearly_ aren't safe. What about the sewers? We could go under the streets and make our way out." I look to Morales considering that he appears to be the leader of the small group.

He nods quickly, "Hey Glenn? Check the alley and see if there're any manhole covers."

Glenn gets up from where he was sitting on a platform and runs across the roof to the other side, he leans over the wall to get a look at the alley. He then runs back to us, "No. They must be on the streets where all the geeks are." He replies.

Jacqui turns to the group with a glint of realisation in her determined eyes, "Maybe not. An old building like this built in the 20's. Big structures often had drainage tunnels into the sewers in case of flooding down in the sub-basement." She says quickly, earning an eyebrow raise from me. _Smart woman._

"How do you know that?" Glenn asks taking a step forward.

"It's my job." She replies, "Was." She says regretfully. "I worked in the city's zoning office."

We all nod at her, this could be our only chance at getting out of the city. I push my unruly hair back and wipe the sweat from my brow.

"Sounds like a plan, we should go take a look." I say. The group makes a move towards the door to head back down the stairs. Morales asked T-dog to stay on the roof and keep trying with the signal, that and someone has to keep their eyes on Merle Dixon.

* * *

I decided to stay on the shop floor with Alex while the others went looking for the drainage tunnel. This was a good time to gather some necessities. Alex didn't have any belongings so my priority was to get him some clothes and a bag. The language gap was also going to prove to be a struggle eventually so I'm going to have to find some books to teach him and me each other's languages perhaps.

I walk around the store looking at clothes for him, he would need something more practical than the sandals and shorts that he was currently wearing. Alex had long since left my side to look at the toys however my eyes kept glancing up at him to make sure where he was. I quickly found some t-shirts and long sleeve tops that I stuffed into my backpack, they looked like they would fit him even if they were a bit baggy. Trousers were another matter though, they couldn't be long enough to trip him up and they needed to be stretchy enough so he could move freely.

"Alex," I called, the young boy quickly looked up at me, "come here." I say while beckoning him with my hand. He walked towards me slowly, he looked really tired.

"We need to get you clothes." I explain to him. I grab a few pairs of different types of trouser and hold them up against him, thankfully they all _seemed_ to be the right size.

"Okay," I say with a small smile. I take his hand and lead him over to the shoes, "quickly try some of these on." Alex sits down on the chair and takes one of his sandals off, I take the shoe off of him and read the size. Once I place the sandal back down I walk over and grab a pair of red converse and hiking boots. The boots would need to be broken into before he wears them properly so, for now, it's best to stick to the converse. I hand them back to him to try on. Whilst he's busy fumbling with the laces I look back to the shop windows and door to see the deadheads still swarming. They better find that tunnels soon or we're all gonna be on the menu. I hear sniffling behind me and turn around to see Alex quietly crying and looking down at his shoe.

I crouch down and place my hands on his small knees, "Hey, what's wrong?" I ask him in a soft voice.

He sniffles a second longer before looking up at me with silent tears streaming down his little red cheeks. I reach up and wipe them away, "I can't do it." He says and points down to his new shoe. I look down and see that the laces are a tangled mess where he's tried to tie them himself.

"It's okay. I'll teach you how to do them later." I tell him, I move my hands and tie the shoe myself, "does it fit?" I ask, he nods his head and his chin trembles I get up and sit beside him and bring him into my arms, I feel his smaller arms wrap around my back tightly.

"Shhh, it's okay. It'll be okay." I whisper into his hair, on that note Rick walked into the store followed by Andrea, they both looked at the deadheads that were swarming outside before joining Alex and me.

"Is he okay?" Andrea asked, her usual pissed off tone was replaced with a caring and thoughtful one. Perhaps she has younger siblings or nieces and nephews.

"I think so. He's just exhausted and got a bit frustrated I think." I say quietly, Alex pulls out of my embrace and looks up at Rick and Andrea with wide eyes. The deadheads outside seemed to be riled up after seeing more people on the shop floor, their already loud moaning intensifies. I take the left hiking boot and put it on Alex's foot.

"How about now? Does it fit?" I ask again, he replies with a nod and wipes away at his eyes. "Good." I finish. I take off the hiking boot and also put them both in my backpack, then I put the other converse on his other foot. "There we go, now let's look for some books shall we?" I ask, I'm not too sure if he understood me completely but he takes my hand and nods once more.

Andrea places her hand on my shoulder before I lead the boy towards the books, "uh, sorry about the way I acted earlier. And for putting a gun in your face." She looks between Rick and me.

"People do things when they're afraid." Rick said nonchalantly, we all walked towards the books together.

"Not that it was entirely unjustified. You guys did get us into this mess." She said quietly before stopping at a jewellery counter. I also stopped and looked at all of the jewellery that was left untouched and sparkling in the light. Andrea did have a point, we were the ones that attracted all of those stupid deadheads, I could understand why she would have been angry.

"If I get us out would that make up for it?" Rick asked her seriously.

She looks up and away from the jewellery, "No, but it would be a start." I can't help but offer her a small smile before we both look at the deadheads again. The outer layer of glass was starting to shatter at the pressure that was being put on it.

Rick looks back at us both with a glint in his eye, "Next time, though, take the safety off. It won't shoot otherwise." He tells her.

"Oh." She exclaims and looks down, she must be a bit embarrassed.

I laugh a bit, "Don't worry, you couldn't have done any worse than me." I comment.

"Is that your gun?" Rick asks her.

She looks back up at him, "it was a gift." She says before looking back down at her gun, "Why?" she asks curiously.

Rick moves towards her with his hand held out, Andrea passes it to him and moves the switch. "The little red dot means it's ready to fire. You may have occasion to use it."

Andrea looks past Rick and towards the deadheads outside, "Good to know." She says quietly.

I breathe out a sigh, "Right, books." I say decidedly, Alex and I carry on walking towards the books. I smile as I look at them, doubt I'll be able to do much reading now. I walk along the aisle and run my fingers across the spines of all the books until we come to language books. Alex picks up a French to English dictionary.

"Hah thanks, kid." I say and mess his hair a little, he smiles back up at me but spots something behind me and walks towards whatever it is that he's found. I turn around and see that he's picked up a CD that teaches basic French and English.

"This?" he asks.

"Yes, definitely." I nod my head, "Hey, Andrea? Do you have anything back at your camp that will play a CD?" I ask and hold up the CD for her to see.

"Yeah, you could play it in Dales RV…If we get back." She says.

"We will." I say back immediately, "We're getting out of here." I tell Alex. I put the CD's in my bag as well. I continue wandering around the shop and pick up a few cans of deodorant for myself and a few hair bobbles. I looked around and saw a mirror hanging up on one of the pillars of the shop and walk over to it.

"Wow, I have definitely seen better days." I tell myself. Before taking in my appearance in more detail.

My naturally black hair that usually falls in ringlets to my shoulders was a mess. Without the usual products, it was frizzy and resembled more of a birds nest. I quickly tried to detangle it as best as I could and put it in a ponytail out of my way. My face was speckled with dirt so I wiped my hands across it a few times to try and get rid of it, it sounds stupid but once I actually cried because I didn't have clean clothes or somewhere to wash myself. I've learned to accept that keeping up hygiene is just a lot harder these days, but when and if there's an opportunity to be clean again I will take it and treasure it forever. There were dark circles underneath my brown eyes from restless nights where I'm too alert to fall asleep. At least I hadn't lost any weight drastically, I still looked like a healthy size but I could tell that I had lost a few pounds.

My white shirt wasn't so white anymore, it was covered in various stain and sweat patches. The belt that hung off my hips held my sword and two Sais. I had to tie pieces of material to the belt to hold my sword and its scabbard in place, I really needed to find something more suitable. The cargo pants that I had found in a store on a raid were ripped at the left knee where I fell over before, however, my sturdy working boots were fine. I breathe out a sigh before wandering back around the shop again to look for a jacket and coat for Alex. We were running out of time so I just snatched two hoodies off of a rail and hoped that they would fit before grabbing a red rain coat.

Once I stuffed the clothes into my now full bag I walked back over to Andrea and Rick. Andrea was looking at the jewellery with the smallest smile I had ever seen on her face.

"See anything you like?" Rick asks her.

"Not me. But I know someone who would." She says while running her fingers over a necklace, I lean over the counter to get a better look. "My sister." She explains, her smile grows into a much bigger and fonder one. "She's still such a kid in some ways. Unicorns, dragons she's into all that stuff. But mermaids, they rule." She says and laughs a little she looks down at the mermaid pendant on the stand, "she loves mermaids." She finishes quietly. I also smile and think of my little brother he was an adventurous little boy who also believed in Dragons and all sorts of mystical creatures, his favourite movie was Narnia: the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. It was also my favourite too, it reminded me of my childhood and dreaming of a magical land.

"Why not take it?" Rick asks her, stopping my train of thought.

She laughs nervously, "Because there's a cop staring at me."

I cut, "Hey I basically cleared out the shop. It's not like the shop owner is going to be mad at you." I tell her.

She looks back at me, "Would it be considered looting?" she asks with a hopeful smile on her face.

"With the world as it is today, I don't think those rules apply anymore." I say quietly, Andrea smiles again and takes the necklace off of the display and tucks it in her pocket.

"okay-

SMASH!

We all turn around and see the outer doors smash and the deadheads pile in, they're now only stopped by the glass door entrance of the shop, I grab Alex's hand and run towards the back of the shop with Rick in front of us. Morales and Jacqui run back in and they stare at the doors with wide eyes. They're not going to hold out much longer, we need to get out of here fast.

Rick point his gun towards the doors and I draw my sword, "What did you find down there?" Rick asks Morales without taking his eyes off of the doors.

"Not a way out." Is Morales quick response.

"What?!" I shout.

"We need to find a way. Soon." Andrea piles in, Glenn also runs back in and stops in his track with his eyes also glued to the front doors.

"If we can't get out of the building, can we at least get out of this room!?" I ask frantically, Alex's breathing quickens showing the tell-tale signs of panic and fear. Glenn looks at me and then at the young boy clutching my hand tightly with both of his small ones.

"I agree, everyone get to the roof!" he says and turns to the rest of the group.

I don't need to be told twice, I sheath my sword and pick up Alex. He buries his head in the crook of my neck while I run back up to the roof with the group hot on my heels.

* * *

Back up on the roof Rick, Andrea, Morales and Jacqui lean over the edge of the building looking over at a construction site. I can hear Rick talking to the group about the trucks having keys or something. Right now I was sitting with my back against the wall in the little shade that it could offer, my bag and sais were on the floor beside me and the hilt of my sword was digging into my side, but I couldn't do anything because Alex was wrapped tightly in my arms balling his face off. Once we had gotten up to the roof I had set him down only for him to collapse at my feet and start crying, I had immediately picked him back up and rushed him over to the shade. That was 10 minutes ago and he hadn't stopped crying. I was worried that he would make himself sick, either that or the crying would leave him with no energy left to escape.

"Its okay baby, you're okay. Shh." I tell him soothingly while stroking his hair and rocking him back and forth, nothing seemed to be working and he didn't look like he was calming down anytime soon. The only thing I could really do was hold him while he cried. I heard a man's laugh across from me and looked up to see Merle laughing and looking between me and the boy.

"Kid needs to grow a pair." He says with a smirk.

Merle Dixon seems to have a talent when it comes to pissing me off, "This 'Kid' is seven years old! He's living in a world where dead people are trying to eat him." I hiss back.

"I wasn't no pussy when I was seven. I was looking after myself by then." He says and lifts his chin up in the air while puffing out his chest.

I squint my eyes, "And look at how well that worked out for you." I retort. The group walks away from the wall while discussing how to distract the deadheads, or as I noticed the others calling them Walkers and Geeks. I tried to pay attention to what they were saying while Alex cried into my chest. They were talking about how the deadheads could detect us.

"They can tell us by smell?" Rick asks, he was squinting his eyes in confusion.

"Can't you?" I weigh in, all eyes turn to me. "I mean they smell, well, _DEAD_. We don't, that's how they can tell the difference." I look back down at the top of Alex's head and run my hand through his soft brown hair, he's finally getting a bit quieter and his breathing is slowing down. Finally.

"Go to sleep." I whisper to him, maybe sleep will do him some good after all the crying he was sure to feel drained. Jacqui walks over to me and looks at the boy with sympathy she grabs a bag up off of the floor and pulls out a small chocolate bar, she holds her hand out to me.

"For when he wakes up." She says with a small smile, "he'll need the energy."

"Thank you." I reach my hand up and take the bar from her and place it by my side.

We both look back up at Rick who appears to be deep in thought, he closes his eyes briefly and sighs.

"What is it? What are you thinking of?" I ask him.

He opens his eyes and looks around the group, "What if we masked our scent with theirs? It could work." He explains quietly, not quite liking the idea but realising it was our only option.

"Whatever it is you need to do. Do it, but I'm staying here. I don't think Alex is quite ready for that." I say decidedly.

* * *

I was sitting in silence with Alex as Merle Dixon tried to make small talk. Pfft, if you could even call it that. I swear the man only thought about sex, drugs and himself.

"You know you remind me of my brother." He tells me.

I roll my eyes, "How so Mr. Dixon?" I ask sarcastically.

"He also has a stick up his ass. It's always up to me to guide him, he _needs_ me." He says seriously.

"Uh-huh, sure." I reply, God help his brother. Must be like the blind leading the bloody blind.

At that moment the rest of the group minus Rick and Glenn burst through the entrance to the roof, Merle and I turn to face them.

"Hey! What's happening, man?" Merle shouts. Truth be told I was rather anxious after hearing Rick's plan, he and Glenn were out there right now amongst all the deadheads. "Hey, c'mon talk to me y'all!" he shouts again, T-Dog is calling to the base camp from the CB and Morales looks over the side of the building with the binoculars.

"Can you see them?" I ask Morales, I couldn't move because Alex was asleep.

After a few seconds he points at something below, "There they are!" he says, I breathe a sigh of relief. However the relief is short lived when the clouds above us release a huge clap of thunder, Alex jumps awake in my arms and looks around with his tired and puffy eyes. I cup his cheek in my hand.

"Okay?" I ask, and he replies with a nod, I stand up once he moves off of my lap. His face lights up when I hand him the chocolate bar that Jacqui got for him, he rips open the chocolate treat and frantically starts eating it with an actual smile on his face.

"Go easy." I tell him before looking up at the dark clouds, "Please don't rain." I whisper, if it rains the guts could wash off of Rick and Glenn which would leave them exposed. I look over the wall to the street below, "where are they?" I ask again. Andrea points down and I follow her finger until my eyes land on Glenn's baseball cap.

"That asshole is out on the street with the handcuff keys?" Merle asks indignantly, I look away from the street at Merle. Does Rick have the keys? What if something happens to Rick? I don't like Merle Dixon but I wouldn't wish anyone to be ripped apart by the deadheads. I stop thinking when I see T-Dog silently wave the key around in the air. Merle's face looks tougher than dried up dog shit.

"Hello, base camp? Can anyone out there hear me?" T-dog repeats. I'm starting to lose hope on contacting their camp, I look back over the wall and towards the deadheads below.

"Hello? Hello? Receptions bad on this end, Repeat. Repeat." Comes a crackled voice through the CB, all heads snap around to look at the device in T-dog's hand.

"Shane, is that you?" he asks, Alex looks up at me with chocolate on his face but also with a hopeful smile, I place my hand on his shoulder and look back to T.

"We're in some deep shit. We're trapped in a department store." He tells whoever is on the other end, "Geek's all over the place, hundreds of them. We're surrounded."

"T-Dog repeat that-

The only thing coming through is crackling sounds. We're all silent waiting for a reply.

"Do you copy?" T asks frantically, but still there's nothing. Now we have to pray that Rick's plan works out.

* * *

More thunder soon starts to follow, "The storms getting closer. If it starts to rain…" I trail off. Andrea and I share a worried look before glancing up at the darkening sky. I jog over to my bag and pull out Alex's new rain coat and my green hoodie, I slip on the hoodie and zip it up before walking over to Alex and help him put on his coat. The red stands against the white of the wall behind him, at least I'm not going to lose him anytime soon. We both walk back to the wall I rest my hand on it and tap my fingers anxiously, Alex isn't tall enough to look over the wall which is a good thing; the last thing we need is for him to freak out.

Rain starts to patter down around us, "Oh no." I whisper to myself, I frantically search for Rick and Glenn on the streets but I can't see them.

"Oh man." Morales says and turns around to see the worried looks on all of our faces, he brings his binoculars back up to his eyes in search for the pair. Soon enough we're all soaked meaning Rick and Glenn are too, the guts could be washed off by now!

"It's just a cloud burst. We get the all the time. It'll pass real quick." Morales tries to explain and reassure us.

"What the hell is happening over there?" I shout and point at a mass of deadheads almost running down the street, "Shit, That's where they are isn't it?" I ask Morales. The only reply I get is silence as we all watch the deadheads chase after Rick and Glenn.

"c'mon, c'mon, c'mon." Morales chants while looking through the binoculars, "they made it over the gate!" He tells us. I can hear gunshots coming from the construction site, the deadheads break down the gate but I can see the white van driving away.

"They're leaving us." Andrea exclaims.

"What no! They wouldn't!" I try to reason, but we can all see them driving away from us!

"Where are they going!?" Morales shouts, soon enough the van disappears out of sight.

I cover my eyes with my hands, I can't watch anymore.

"Guys! Do you copy? We're trying to get the geeks away!" Glenn's voice comes over the CB.

"Man, you had us worried sick!" T shouts back at Glenn.

"The roll-up doors at the front of the store facing the street. Meet us there and be ready!" Glenn tells us.

Everyone frantically starts collecting their things, I pull my hood back down then collect my Sais off of the floor and put them back on my belt. I pick up Alex who is really starting to weigh more and more in my tired arms. I unsheathe my sword as we head towards the door and rush down the stairwell, Andrea's shouting up at the group and I can hear the group shouting back and forth.

"What's the hold-up? We need to move" I shout up the stairwell to them, I can see them running down the stairs so I continue on; However, I had failed to notice that Merle was not behind us. Alex wraps his arms and legs around me so it's easier for me to run with him while only using one arm. We practically fly down the stairs and into the shop. Alex hides his face in my neck when we run past the deadheads at the door. It was unbelievable they were all piled up on top of each other! We quickly ran through the shop and into the loading bay where the roll-up doors were. Jacqui and Andrea ran to the metal chains and started to pull on them to open the doors. I put Alex down and place him behind me, Morales stops the two women and we fall silent and listen for the sound of the van. Suddenly I can hear a car alarm, which must be Glenn.

"What is that?" Andrea whispers.

"I think it's Glenn's idea of getting the deadheads away." I answer her, I still have my sword out at the ready for when Rick arrives. "Wait, where's T-dog? And Merle?" I ask when I notice the two men's absence. Just as I ask T-dog runs in shouting.

"Let's go, they're here!" Morales exclaims.

"Where's Merle?!" I shout at him but my question is drowned out by the group shouting over each other to open the door, I take Alex's hand and the door starts to open up revealing Rick inside an empty delivery van ushering us in, I can hear moaning and screaming behind us so I turn around and see deadheads coming from the shop floor exit.

"Rick! Take Alex!" I shout and Ricks leans out of the van to take Alex out of my arms and sets him down in the van behind him. Rick turns back to catch the bags that are being thrown into the van then we all jump in just as the deadheads are about to reach us. "Drive!" I scream and then the van pulls out of the bay, Morales reaches up and pull the van doors shut. I collapse against the wall and my sword clatters to the floor, I can feel myself shaking.

"That was too close." I say shakily, I look over at Alex who's sitting in the very corner of the van in between Jacqui and Andrea. I rest my head against the wall and close my eyes when I feel another presence drop down beside me, I open my eyes to a crack and see that it's Alex, I turn my body towards him and hold him tightly. Much like when we were stuck in the tank I didn't know who was comforting who. I look around at the group who are all a bit shaken and covered in sweat. Andrea and Jacqui are clinging to each other as if their lives depended on it, Morales has moved to sit at the front with Rick while T-dog clutches his side. He's still sore from when Merle had beaten him up. I can't even begin to imagine Merle Dixon's fate. I look out of the window in the front of the van and see that we're quickly leaving the city. Thank God. Rick turns back and he locks eyes with me for a brief moment and turns back to the road. For a while, we all sit in silence as we get our heads around our near death experience when T-dog pipes up.

"I dropped the damned key." He says, his voice laced with anger towards himself. We all acknowledge what he says but no one says a word about it.

"Where's Glenn?" Andrea asks Rick.

"He's driving ahead." Is Rick's short reply.

* * *

 **Hello! I'm back, where have I been? Having the life sucked out of me by School. so, yeah, School has been crazy lately especially with exams going on and around the clock rehearsals for our next production. But anyway! It's finally the summer holidays! so I will be updating this baby a lot more.**

 **Shout out to my reviewers! :)**

 **XcantaX \- aww thank you! I've recently discovered Grammarly and honestly it is my new life saver! there's really just something amazing about someone who wields a sword, right?**

 **galwidanatitude \- thanks, that's what I was aimimg for ;)**

 **Keiraxoxoxo \- thank you! x**

 **Until next time!**

 **Larissa xx**


	4. Flares

**Chapter four: Flares**

 _But did you see the flares in the sky?_

 _Were you blinded by the light?_

 _Did you feel the smoke in your eyes?_

 _Did you, did you?_

 _Did you see the sparks filled with hope?_

 _You are not alone_

 _'Cause someone's out there, sending out flares._

 _ **-Flares, The Script.**_

* * *

I smile at Alex and see that Andrea and Jacqui are doing the same. As we were driving back to the camp I had opened up my bag and taken out the French Dictionary that I got from the department store, along with a pen and a small pad of paper that I already had.

"Well done! You've got it." I tell him, Alex was writing down French to English phrases and saying them out loud, I was correcting him on pronunciation and helping him read through the dictionary. I myself wasn't all too good at French in school but I knew some of the basics. I watched as Alex wrote out another sentence and showed it to me.

I laugh, "I don't know you'll have to ask Andrea and Jacqui." I tell him and motion towards the two women who were both watching him intently.

He took in a deep breath before reading his question off of the paper, "Are there any… other children?" he asks slowly. I had gone over basic pronunciation and what sounds letters made, but the dictionary also gave the sounds of the words when spoken. I smile up at Andrea and Jacqui, he seems to be a very smart little boy.

"Well, Morales children are there, and a few others." Jacqui answers, I can see him processing the word before smiling back.

"Good!" he exclaims and we all laugh. I take the dictionary out of his hands and he looks up at me with his warm chocolatey eyes.

"My turn." I tell him, I flip through the pages before speaking, "Hmm. Comment vous sentez-vous?" I ask him, "How do you feel?"

He scrunches up his tiny nose, "J'ai faim." He says clearly.

"Don't tell me." I say as I figure out what he's saying, "'I am'….Hungry?" I ask, the little boy nods his head. I take the pen and paper and write down a few sentences on the page.

"I know you are, we'll have food soon." I tell him and hand back the pen and paper, "translate these and write them down." I hand back the dictionary and he goes back to work. I ruffle his hair before standing up and leaning over Morales' chair.

"How far out are we?" I ask, the sun is starting to set and the outside world looks peaceful once again, almost as if the apocalypse had never happened.

Morales turns back to face me, "just a couple of miles, we'll be there real soon." He tells me with a smile on his face, he must be relieved to be back with his kids, "how's the little one doing?" he asks he peers around my shoulder to look at Alex who's nose is stuffed in the dictionary.

"He's a very hungry little boy, I don't know how long it's been since he's had proper food so when we get back is there a chance he could have something to eat?" I ask.

"Of course! We have tinned food that he's welcome to tuck into." He says brightly, "we have water too, we go down to the lake and collect water from there then we boil it."

"Oh good," I say relieved. I turn to Rick who has been very quiet for most of the journey, "Hey, how are you holding up." Rick doesn't really give a reply other than glancing my way and back to the road, Morales and I look at each other before looking back at Rick.

"Best not to dwell on it that Merle got left behind. Nobody's gonna be sad that he didn't come back…except maybe Daryl." He tells Rick.

"Daryl?" Rick asks.

I remembered Merle comparing me to his brother who 'also had a stick up his ass.' Perhaps that was his brother, "Is that his brother?" I ask.

"Yeah, that's him." Morales explains, suddenly I hear the same car alarm from earlier, Alex drops his book and paper to the floor before rushing up to my side, I look into the side mirror to see none other than the red sports car speeding behind us, the car easily over takes us while Glenn's arm fist pumps the air out of the window and he's whooping like a loon. Alex think's it's extremely funny and starts to giggle uncontrollably, I also can't help but laugh a little at the quirky Korean man.

"At least somebody's having a good day." Morales comments. I place my hand on Alex's shoulder and turn us both around.

"C'mon then, we're almost there." I tell him and we both sit back down and simply enjoy the soothing ride to a place that is safe, it did help relax one's conscience.

* * *

It's not before long that the truck comes to a stop, Alex who sits beside me looks excited and can't wait to get out of the vehicle. I put everything back into my backpack including my two Sais and Alex's rain coat. The back door opens and everyone jumps out breathing in the fresh air that the mountains have to offer them. I will admit I'm a little nervous, I pat down my dirty clothes that are beyond saving and I wipe my face a few times on my top. I really want to make a good impression on these people who have decided to take us in.

"Are you nervous?" Alex ask me, I smile at him and brush his hair with my fingers.

"'course not," I reply, "wait here with me."

I look at Rick who hasn't moved from his seat, "I'm sorry Rick. I know you were out there looking for your family, but maybe they're still out there somewhere." I tell him, "You have to have hope right?" I ask him.

He takes his head out of his hands and looks at me with tired eye's, "yeah, I guess."

"I'm gonna let you in on something. When my Mum and Dad first split up things were crazy for a while, it was a rather messy divorce and my parents grew to hate each other. I didn't think anything would ever be okay again, I didn't have any hope of things being okay again. My Dad told me that if I had hope, then I was already halfway there." I tell him, he watches me as a smile lights up my face, "You have to have hope, Rick." I turn around and Alex follows me, I jump out of the back of the truck and hold out my arms for him then I lift him out and set him on the ground. I wrap my arm around his shoulders and his arm comes up to wrap around my waist as we walk towards the group who all had happy smiles on their faces.

I saw Andrea hugging a girl who seemed to be around my age with light blonde hair, which must have been Amy, her younger sister. Morales was currently smothered by his kids as they ran and jumped into his arms, followed by a short woman who must have been his wife. There were a few other people on camp that I had never seen before. I lead myself and Alex over to Glenn who's smiling at us, it was the same smile he gave us when he got us out of the tank.

"Hey, little man you did good today." Glenn tells Alex who looks at Glenn with a shy smile.

"Hey, helicopter boy, Come say hello to everyone." Morales calls to Rick who is still to get out of the van. I laugh at the new nickname I'm definitely not gonna let that one slip. "The guy's a cop, like you." Morales tells someone behind us, Rick gets out of the truck and places his hands on his hips as he walks towards us I offer him a friendly smile but he just looks on tiredly when suddenly he just stops walking towards us and stares at something behind us with wide eyes.

"Rick?" I ask.

He points at someone then puts a hand to his mouth in shock, "Oh." He mutters and starts walking forward quicker than before.

"Dad! Dad!" I hear from behind me, I see a little boy with brown hair and blue eyes the same shade as Ricks running towards us with a slender woman who has long brown hair. I open my mouth in shock as Rick starts crying while running towards the little boy before catching him in his arms and falling to the floor with him. He found them, they were here all along! Everyone is stunned into silence as the family reunites. Rick picks up his son and kisses his hair while walking towards his wife who just stands there in shock before she wraps her arms tightly around the pair.

"Isn't that a sight for sore eyes?" A man says next to me causing me to jump, he laughs lightly with a friendly smile, "I'm Dale." He offers me his hand and I awkwardly shake it, I never really have been one of those people who shook other people's hands.

"Reia Faye, it's nice to meet you. This is Alex." I introduce myself and my young ward.

Dale smiles, "You're-

"British, yes. That's all I hear from anyone these days." I say with a small laugh and Dale joins me.

"I bet. Reia, Huh? That's an interesting name." He says curiously.

"It's a nickname, and that's all you get I'm afraid." I say sheepishly, "My full names a bit of a mouth full"

Dale carries on smiling, "That's fine by me, let's get you both settled in shall we?"

* * *

Thanks to Dale, Alex and I had a tent set up for ourselves within the hour, it was a small one man tent but we could both easily fit into it. We had both changed into new clothes which was a relief. I had been wearing my cargo pants and white top for days and to be quite honest it was starting to smell, Andrea had kindly taken my clothes to be washed which I was extremely thankful for. I was now wearing an old pair of black skinny jeans with a red shirt and a green camisole on underneath, on my feet were a clean pair of red socks that poked out of my trusty work boots. Alex was now wearing a new pair of blue Jeans, his converse and a grey t-shirt. The young boy looked more at ease surrounded by everyone while we sat around the campfire once the sun had gone down. Rick was in the middle of telling everyone about his journey from when he woke up in the hospital to now.

"Disoriented, I guess that comes closest." He says while everyone sits in silence as the listen intently, Carl was sitting on his lap while Lori was pressed up against his side, "fear, confusion, all those things, but disoriented comes closest."

Alex rests his head on my arm while gazing into the small fire, I wrap my arm around his back.

"Words can be meagre things," Dales says and places his cup down on the floor, "Sometimes they fall short." I like Dale, he reminds me of my favourite primary school teacher who had both wisdom and humour, he cared for everyone.

"I felt like I had been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else." Rick continues, "For a while, I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not ever wake up from, ever."

Carl looks up at his father, "Mom said you died." He tells him quietly.

Rick looks away from his son to Lori and back, "she had every reason to believe that, don't you ever doubt it." I noticed that Lori kept glancing up at someone across the fire, I followed her gaze to Rick's best friend whom I was introduced to earlier, his name was Shane? I'm terrible at names sometimes. I looked back at Lori to see that she was now staring at me! I quickly avert my eyes from her and look at Alex who's eyelids are starting to droop. Wonder what _her_ problem is.

"When things started to get really bad they told me at the hospital that they were going to medevac you and the other patients to Atlanta…and it never happened." Lori explains.

Rick nods his head, "Well I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell. And from the look of that hospital, it got overrun."

"Yeah looks don't deceive," Shane pipes up and everyone's attention turns to him, he had been very quiet since I had met him earlier today, "I barely got them out…You know?" There was something weird about the way he said it, almost as if he was being defensive about the fact that he was the one to 'save' Lori and Carl. I shake my head a little, I'm probably over thinking things which I tend to do a lot.

"I can't tell you how grateful I am, Shane. Can't begin to express it." He tells his friend sincerely. Shane just stares back at Rick intensely, there's definitely something going on here.

"There goes those words falling short again." Dale comments, with a smile "Paltry things." We're all left in a peaceful silence until a large man noisily stands up and chuck a log into the fire causing sparks to fly. The wood quickly starts to burn and crackle in the flames. Wasn't the rule to keep the fires small to not draw attention?

"Hey, Ed, you want to rethink that log?" Shane asks him, so that was a rule then. Everyone looked over at the man in question.

"It's cold, man." Came Ed's gruff reply, that guy seems like an idiot.

I look back at Shane who seems a tad bit annoyed at the older man's antics, "Cold doesn't change the rules, does it? Keep our fires low, just embers so we can't be seen from a distance, right?" Shane's not really asking him, he's telling him.

Ed looks bored, "I said it's cold, you should mind your own business for once."

I squint my eyes and the man's attitude, is he stupid? Shane huffs and stands up, he stalks towards Ed's fire with a mitten in hand.

"Are you sure you want to have this conversation, Ed?" Shane asks, there's a tenseness in the once peaceful environment as the two men stare each other down. It's Ed who breaks eye contacts and scratches his head.

"Go on, pull that thing out." he gestures to a woman sitting across from him, she's a slender woman with extremely short hair who is currently sitting by a young girl with short blonde locks. "Go on!" he almost shouts at her, I watch the woman jump to her feet at Ed's command and quickly pulls the burning log out of the fire, Shane watches the exchange without saying anything before stamping on the log to put it out. He then turns back to the woman and the young girl.

"Hey, Carol, Sophia, how are y'all this evening?" He asks in a softer voice.

The woman, Carol, nods her head quickly "Fine, we're just fine." She informs him. Her eyes flicker over to Ed who for some unknown reason looks pissed at her, "I'm sorry about the fire." She apologises.

"No, no, no. There's no apology needed. Y'all have a good night, ok?" He says with a smile.

"Ok." Comes carols small reply.

Ok so maybe Shane isn't too bad after all, I mean Rick did speak quite highly of him. He doesn't even look at Ed when he leaves, "I appreciate the cooperation." He says. Shane then returns to our fire and sits back down.

Dale leans forward, "Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon?" He asks, I can't help but roll my eyes at the other Dixons name, I hope he isn't as insufferable as his older brother. "He won't be happy to hear that his brother was left behind."

"I'll tell him. I dropped the key. It's on me." T-Dog says feeling extremely guilty.

"I cuffed him. That makes him mine." Rick replies.

Glenn laughs sheepishly, "Guys it's not a competition. I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy."

I nod my head, "I agree with Glenn, I mean you saw how Merle reacted to T earlier. I don't know Daryl Dixon but if his brother is anything to show for their family I can just imagine what he's like too." I look back at T who's still wearing a solemn look on his face.

He shakes his head, "I did what I did. Hell, if I'm gonna hide from him."

I look back down at Alex, I think he's definitely gone to sleep by now. I should take him back to the tent pretty soon so he can get some proper rest, Just as I'm about to tell the group that I'll be heading to bed Amy speaks.

"We could lie." She says innocently.

I immediately shake my head at the idea, "Uh-uh, he'd find out and probably be even more pissed." I tell her.

"We tell the truth," Andrea tells her sister, "Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he would have gotten us all killed. Your husband did what was necessary." She nods to Lori, "And if Merle got left behind it is nobody's fault but Merles." She says with clear conviction.

"And that's what we tell Daryl?" Dale asks incredulously, "I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you?" He asks not only Andrea but everyone. "A word to the wise, we're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt."

So that's where the infamous Daryl Dixon was, hunting for baby rabbits in all his redneck glory. Either that or his legs are getting chewed on by a deadhead. From what I had to go on Daryl was no better than Merle, who had the human decency to spit on my face. I just can't wait to meet his brother.

"I was scared and I ran. I'm not ashamed of it." T confesses. I nod my head in understanding, everything was crazy when we were running down that stairwell. Everyone was shouting, we were all bounding down the stairs so fast that I was sure we would fall, Alex was in my arms clinging to me I was so focused on getting us to safety that I had failed to notice that neither T-dog or Merle were on their way down the stairs.

"We were all scared, we all ran. What's your point?" Andrea asks him.

"I stopped long enough to chain that door. The staircase is narrow. Maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. It's not enough to break through it- not that chain, not that padlock. My point is that Dixon's still alive and he's up there, handcuffed on that roof." T-dog explains, "That's on us."

I look at the glowing embers in the fire and think about Merle Dixon. Sure he was a piece of shit but it's not right that he should be changed like an animal. On the one hand, he really was a liability, he was unpredictable and could get us all killed. On the other hand, it would be inhumane of us to leave him there, after all, isn't the idea that we are _human_? By leaving him there we were no better than the deadheads. I scrub my hand down my face a scrunch my eyes shut, thinking like this wasn't going to help anyone right now. I'll talk to Rick about it tomorrow.

"Well, I better get Alex to bed, Goodnight guys." I tell everyone, many good nights are sent back to me. I nudge Alex awake and he looks up with tired eyes, a few people laugh at the young boy's face.

I take in a breath, here goes, "Heure du coucher." I tell him, he looks confused for a second and all I can think is that I said it wrong, but he nods.

"Okay." He whispers back and I smile, He looks at the group "Bonne Nuit." He says tiredly.

I take his hand and we both stand and walk over to our small tent, I unzip the entrance and let Alex walk in first. I pull his shoes off of his feet and set them down on the floor. He quickly climbs into his sleeping bag which is huge compared to him. I sit down on my bag and take my shoes off when I feel him pat my arm.

"What?" I ask.

"Thank you, Reia." He says tiredly.

I smile sweetly at him then I bend over and kiss his forehead, "Goodnight." I whisper before climbing into my own sleeping bag, My sword however was unsheathed and laying on the floor by my side. It's the first night since the apocalypse hit that I fell asleep quickly and easily.

* * *

I feel something nudging my side when I come to, I roll over and open my eyes to slits. The mystery object is Alex's foot I quietly laugh when I take in his appearance. He's spread out like a starfish with half of his body in the sleeping bag and the other half outside of it, we're also now laying top to tail. That boy must wriggle around a lot in his sleep. While he's asleep I quietly rummage through my bag to pull out my tooth brush and tooth paste. I also take the opportunity to change into my navy blue t-shirt on. Once I've done that I lace up my boots before stepping out of the tent with my belt in hand and my sword in the other. Many people look at me as I put the belt on and put my sword back in its sheath, honestly, I've gone past the point of caring. I pick up the toothbrush and tooth paste before zipping the tent shut again, it's best to let Alex get all the sleep he can.

I walk up the small hill to Dales RV, the man himself is sitting in a beach chair atop the vehicle on the lookout. He watches me as I approach and offers the same smile as when he introduced himself.

"Good morning, Dale." I greet, "do you mind if I use your bathroom to brush my teeth?" I ask him and hold up the brush.

"Go ahead, just make sure you don't go wasting any water." He tells me, "and good morning to you too."

I smile once again before going into the RV, I take in the inside interior of the RV before my eyes land on Andrea who's sitting at the table with what smells like a cup of coffee.

"You have Coffee here!?" I exclaim, "Do you have any tea?" I ask excitedly.

Andrea laughs and takes another sip, "Good morning to you to. I didn't quite realise just how English you are." I cringe a little and she notices, "Sorry, Welsh!" she corrects herself and I smile at her, "I think Dale may have some stashed away here somewhere, I'll take a look for you."

"Andrea, you are a literal Angel." I tell her before walking into the extremely small bathroom. I look into the little cabinet mirror at my reflection. The dark circles that currently resided under my eyes had almost faded after a decent night's sleep and my face was no longer grimy after I washed it yesterday. I smiled at myself in the mirror, I almost looked like I did before the world went to the shitter. _Almost._

I turn the small tap on and put the toothpaste on the brush and then under the tap before I start to brush my teeth, then I turn the tap off so that I don't waste any water. Once I finish brushing my teeth I look at my hair- which surprise, surprise looks like a birds nest again. I huff to myself and yank the bobble out of my hair, I run my fingers through my curls carefully so as not to make oneself look like a lion. I then take the bobble again and pick up two sections of hair on either side of my head and tie it at the back so that I'm left with a half up and half down hairstyle. _That's about as good as_ it's _gonna get._

I walk back out of the bathroom and see Andrea standing by the stove and boiling some water, "Did you want any sugar?" she asks me she has a box of tea bags in hand and I gasp.

"You have tea!" I exclaim with a huge smile on my face, "just a teaspoon of sugar please."

"No problem, now there's a small carton of milk in the refrigerator but it's gonna go bad soon so you may as well have it." She tells me.

"Uh actually I like it without, but could I have the milk for Alex?" I ask.

"Sure thing. I was wondering about that boy of yours." She tells me.

"Oh! He's not mine, I mean I just found him-

"But he's yours now." She interrupts, "he needs help with his languages and Amy was asking if she could help him out. She was adamant that I ask you." She says.

I smile nervously, "Of course she can."

She looks at me for a few seconds and studies me, I can't quite meet her gaze, "What is it?" she asks me.

I shrug my shoulders sheepishly, "I don't know. It's just… You said he's…mine now. I haven't really thought about it. It's not like I'm his mother." I tell her.

"Of course you're not, but, you're the one who is going to have to take responsibility for that little boy. It's as clear as day that he has an attachment to you. So far you've been great with him, just remember that it's your job to care for him now." She says.

I smile a little, "He reminds me of my baby brother, and whenever I look at him I just see Ryan smiling back. It…It hurts Andrea." I tell her, I can feel my lip tremble and look at the ground. I hear her walk over to me and she hugs me to her. My arms wrap around her on their own accord. "It's just so hard. I'm out here by myself. A-and my Dad's dead, I don't know what happened to my family back in Wales. I just don't know." I cry even harder until I know that I'm ugly crying, my face feels hot as tears roll down my cheeks. I can feel Andrea running her hand across my head and smoothing down my curls. After a few minutes, I calm down and step out of her embrace.

"I-I'm sorry, you shouldn't have to deal with me like this…" I trail off and sniffle.

"Hey, you're my friend. I want to have to deal with you." She tells me.

I stare at her for a second, "You're my friend?" I ask quietly.

She smiles at, "I would like to be. I mean I let you cry all over my favourite shirt." She jokes and I laugh shakily.

"I'd like that." I tell her and laugh again, "yesterday I held my sword to your throat and now you're hugging me while I cry. It all seems so peculiar." I comment which causes her to laugh.

"And yesterday I was holding a gun to Ricks head and now I'm extremely grateful that he brought my sister and me back together. It's funny the way things work out isn't it?" she asks.

"You've got that right." I reply, "Anyway I should get back before Alex wakes up and wonders where I am. Thanks for the cwtch." I tell her.

"The what?" she asks.

"cwtch." I reply and then I realise, "oh right sorry I forgot. Cwtch in welsh means hug."

Realisation light her eyes, "Oh I see, _cwtch._ " She says, "I like it, sounds good."

I laugh as she pours the water into a cup with the tea bag inside. I take a hold of the string and dunk it a few time's, Andrea walks around me to the fridge and pulls out a small carton of milk and hands it to me along with a pot of sugar. I grab a spoon off of the counter top and spoon out some sugar and put it in my cup and stir it. Then I pull the tea bag out and put it in the bin.

I take a sip and smile, "Thank you _so much."_

"It's no problem. I better go check on Amy, leave the cup in the sink when you're done." She tells me.

"Will do!" I say as she steps out of the RV. I sit in silence as I drink my tea, it tastes so good. So much better than rain water. Once I finish I place the cup in the sink like Andrea said and pick up the carton of milk, I walk out of the door and look up at the sky. It was cloudy today and a lot cooler than the past few days, which I was thankful for. Me and heat do not mix. I take a few steps before looking up at Dale, "Thanks, Dale, see you soon."

"Say Hi to Alex for me." He requests as I walk back down the hill.

I pass Ed's wife, Carol who looks at the sword at my hip, I offer a friendly smile so as to look less intimidating she quickly looks back down at the ironing board that has Ricks uniform on it. Okay, different approach is needed next time Reia, I think to myself.

Finally, I'm back at the tent and I unzip the opening, I peep my head inside and see that Alex is awake and sitting up he smiles when he sees me.

"Hey, drink up!" I thrust the carton of milk at him and he quickly takes it from my hand and drinks it down greedily, "Woah, slow down there." I laugh. He quickly finishes the drink and hands the empty carton back to me, I place it on the floor and pull his clothes out of my bag. "It's colder today so wear this." I tell him and hand him his black jeans, with a long sleeved green shirt. I step out of the tent and close it so he has some privacy. I watch as everyone bustles around the camp, all busy doings something or other. It's not long until Alex steps out of the tent with his converse in hand and passes them up to me.

"Let's do this." I tell him with a smile and he gives one back. Alex watches intently as I tie up his shoe laces, "Build a tepee, come inside. Close it tight so that we can hide. Over the mountain and around we go. Here's my arrow and here's my bow." I finish and pull the laces tightly. Then I repeat for the next shoe. He might not properly understand but it was what my Mum always said while tying my shoelaces when I was little.

"What now?" he asks me, he looks a lot more well rested now and he jumps a little as he talks. Yesterday he was exhausted and today he's full of energy, let's see how well I can look after a bubbly seven-year-old.

"Let's take a look around camp and then we'll get breakfast. We'll come back for the CD's." I smile, he places his hand in mine and I walk back up the hill and we pass Carol again only this time she offers a small smile to Alex and meets my eyes before looking behind me. I turn around and see Rick approaching us wearing a white tee and jeans which was unusual considering I had only ever seen him in uniform.

"Well good morning, sleeping Beauty." I joke, Alex giggles at my jest while Rick smirks at me before nodding to Carol. Suddenly clanging metal draws my attention away from Rick and Carol to the men bustling around Glenn's sports car. The Korean man stands to the side with a forlorn look upon his face.

"Let's go and see Glenn." I say to Alex and tug him along.

"What's happening?" He asks as we approach the car, Glenn turns around once he hears us and points at his car.

"Look at 'em." He grunts, "Vultures." The wheels have been taken off and the car has been jacked up, Jim has his head in the engine pulling various parts out. "Yeah, go on strip it clean." Glenn almost hisses. I grimace and pat his shoulder awkwardly, he leans into my touch and murmurs "Thought I'd get to drive it at least a few more days."

"Who knows maybe we'll stumble across another one someday." I say optimistically, "Do you know where Andrea is?" I ask him when I remember what she said about Amy wanting to help Alex out with his English, without taking his eyes off of his beloved car Glenn gestured over to the right of us. Surely enough there was Andrea hanging up clothes to dry with Amy. Lori was also there talking to Rick which caused me to roll my eyes, I wasn't quite sure what to make of Lori yet she hadn't really spoken to me and then there was that whole business last night around the fire. The whole thing was just a bit odd.

"You're not serious." She huffs at Rick and bends down to pick up more clothes, I frown slightly, Trouble in paradise? Amy walks forward and introduces herself to Alex and the two of them start chatting while Andrea and I watch, however, I get distracted when a loud car speeds into camp. The driver, Shane, stops the car and calls out for everyone to hear "Waters here y'all. Just remember to boil before use." He steps out of the vehicle and nods at Rick before carrying on unloading the water.

"Are you asking me or telling me?" Lori asks Rick quietly.

"Okay, uh, how about we give you two some privacy?" I ask but I'm not really looking for an answer as I take Alex's hand once again, Andrea and Amy quickly nod in agreement. Nobody wanted to stay for the couple to have a bickering match so we all started towards the RV when the sound of children screaming interrupted us. Alex frantically grabbed my arm as I was about to grab my sword, Lori, Rick and a few others were already running towards the screams. I look back and spot Jacqui heading my way.

"Jacqui take Alex!" I yell, I push him towards the woman who has her arms out ready, "Stay with Jacqui!" I order him. He tries to keep his grip on my arm but I pull out of it and run as fast as I can through the trees and draw my sword. Carl and Sofia are both wrapped in their mother's tight embrace while they shake and cry, I carry on running until I see the men in a circle beating a deadhead into the ground with their make shift weapons. The sight is sickening and is enough to stop me in my tracks, it's Dale who delivers the final blow with his axe and cuts the head off of it causing me to gag and turn away I lean against a tree and lower my sword arm. The men take a few steps back and breathe in heavily, a thick silence hangs in the air as everyone stares at the unmoving corpse.

"They never come this far up the mountains." Dale mutters and tries to regain his breath.

Morales steps in, "They been running out of food in the city that's what." He explains.

Our attention is drawn towards the bushes where we can hear rustling, a hush falls over everyone as we stand alert and on guard. I quickly take up the front with Rick, my hands grip my sword tightly in front of me ready for a deadhead to rush out of the bushes at any moment. The rustling gets loud as whatever it is approaching us, everyone becomes tense. I raise my brows as a man with a crossbow appears. He looks at us as if we're all stupid with are weapons drawn and pointing at him. I lower my sword once again and take in the man before me. He has short brown hair and some facial hair, he's covered in a thin layer of sweat most likely caused by the humidity, my eyes wander down to his sleeveless arms and see that they are quite muscular which leads me to the conclusion that he must use that crossbow an awful lot. If it weren't for the scowl on his face and the glare he threw our way I would consider him attractive.

"Oh, Jesus." Shane whispers as the man stops in his tracks to look at all of us, his eyes land on me for a moment and I can't help but shiver as he looks me up and down so I quickly avert my eyes and sheath my sword.

"Son of a bitch." The man exclaims before walking around us the Deer that lays half devoured on the ground. "That's my deer! Look at it all gnawed on by this filthy. Disease-bearing. Motherless. Poxy Bastard!" he punctuates each word with a swift kick to the deadheads body on the earthy floor, each kick is followed by a sickening crunch and squelch. Then suddenly I realise that this guy sounds familiar. He talks an awful lot like Merle Dixon which causes me to sigh, so this is _the_ Daryl Dixon that everyone has been talking about; if he's pissed about the deer now he's going to be hell when he finds out about his brother.

"Calm down, son. That's not helping." Dale says trying to be the voice of reason.

"What do you know about it old man? Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to On Golden Pond?" he sneers and strides over to Dale and back to the deer releasing a mighty sigh. He sure is one for dramatics, I think to myself. "I've been tracking this deer for miles. Gonna drag it back to camp. Cook us up some venison." He explains a bit quieter than before but he rips the arrows out of the deer ferociously, "Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" He asks no one in particular.

I roll my eyes, "I wouldn't."

"That's a damn shame." Daryl replies without taking his eyes off of his once prized deer, "Well I got some squirrel, about a dozen or so. That'll have to do." He glances at me again before his eyes land on Rick.

A squelch from the ground draws my eyes to the deadheads…head. Its jaw starts mechanically snapping opening and closing and I wince.

"Oh, God." Amy cries and turns away walking back to camp with Andrea at her side.

"Come on people, what the hell?" Daryl says aiming his crossbow at the head and firing hitting it right between the eyes. Once the deadhead is officially dead he walks towards it and places his foot on the side of its face before pulling the arrow out, "It's gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothing?" He walks away from everyone and back towards camp, I catch Rick's eye and raise one brow at him before following after the redneck.

When we reach camp Daryl immediately calls for his brother, "Oh boy." I whisper to myself, this is not going to go down well.

"Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel, let's cook 'em up." He shouts through the camp in search for his missing brother.

"Daryl, just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you." Shane tells him.

Daryl turns around impatiently with a confused look on his face, "About what?" he asks.

I come to a stop a few paces behind the two with Glenn and Rick, "About Merle. There was a… There was a problem in Atlanta." Shane starts.

"Is he dead?" he asks quietly, not really showing much emotion but I thought I almost heard his voice crack a bit.

Shane shakes his head, "We're not sure."

"He either is or he ain't!" Daryl shouts and looks at Shane as if he were stalking his prey.

"No easy way to say this, so, I'll just say it." Rick interrupts the angry Redneck and walks towards him. Daryl turns around with an even deeper scowl set on his face as he watches Rick approach.

"Who are you?" He asks gruffly, his eyes flicker past Rick towards me and then back.

"Rick Grimes." He says, introducing himself.

Daryl almost snickers, "Rick Grimes. You got something you want to tell me?" his voice becomes more dangerous by the second.

Rick doesn't even flinch at the man's tone, "Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked to a piece of metal. He's still there." Rick says matter of factly. That's when I notice T-Dog come into view with a few logs in his arms. His eye's become wide when he sees Daryl and Rick talking, the guilt must be getting to him. I walk past the two men and up to T.

"It's going to be okay. Don't panic." I tell him.

"Hold on, Let me process this. You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof, and you left him there!?" he shouts. I look down at the floor also feeling guilty for not doing more in the city, I should have checked that everyone got off of that roof, instead of leaving someone behind chained like a dog.

"Yeah." Rick replies simply.

I watch as the two men stand still watching each other for a second before Daryl lets out an angry yell and throws the tied up squirrels at Rick and is about to charge at him until Shane tackles him to the floor. Daryl rolls away and pulls a knife out of his belt.

"Hey!" I shout and run forward T-Dog who is beside me drops the logs to the floor and follows.

"Watch the knife!" Shane tells Rick as Daryl swings for him with it.

I'm behind Daryl and push him as hard as I can but he only seems to stumble a little, he turns around and swings the knife at me but I already see it coming from a mile away. I block with my arm and duck under his while pulling his arm back behind him, I apply my thumb to the inside of his arm by his elbow and apply pressure while my other hand pulls his wrist up. He cries out as I get the wrist lock and pressure point just right, he tries to get away so I kick my foot down on the back of his knee making him drop to the floor and the knife also falls out of his hand.

"You best let me go!" He shouts.

"Not until you calm down!" I shout back in his ear. Daryl still struggles and I know that he's strong enough to escape so I keep twisting his wrist up and dig my thumb in again.

Rick approaches us and crouches down so that he's eye level with Daryl, "I'd like to have a calm discussion about this topic. Do you think we can manage that?" He asks. Daryl stops moving and I look at Rick who nods at me so I let go of Daryl and shove him away from me in case he decides to turn around and go for me. "What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others." He explains.

"It's not Ricks fault." T interrupts, we all look up at him, "I had the key. I dropped it."

Daryl shakes his head in disbelief, "You couldn't pick it up!?"

"I dropped it in a drain." T explains.

Daryl nods his head at the ground and pulls himself back up, "If it's supposed to make me feel better it don't." he says, coming towards T-Dog, I take a step forward warding him off and he stops while throwing me a dirty look.

"Well, maybe this will. I chained the door so the geeks couldn't get at him, with a padlock." T tells him.

"It's gotta count for something." Rick adds in.

Suddenly Daryl takes in a quick breath and wipes at his eyes making me feel bad considering I just threw him into the floor a few seconds ago, "Hell with all y'all!" He cries, "Just tell me where he is so's I can go get him."

"He'll show you." Lori says, walking towards us. Amy and Andrea stared at her while she looked at her husband, "Isn't that right?"

Rick looks at his wife as if he's trying to figure out some sort of hidden meaning to her words, finally, he makes up his mind and nods, "I'm going back." I look at Lori who decides to disappear into the RV.

"Reia!" I hear someone call me. I turn around and see Alex running towards me. Jacqui stands behind him as he leaves her side I walk towards him until his arms wrap around my middle and his face presses against my stomach.

"Hey, It's okay now. It's okay." I tell him and stroke his hair. He pulls away from me and I hear his tummy rumble. "Right, Breakfast."

* * *

About an hour later Rick emerged from his tent with his officer's uniform back on, it was decided that himself, Glenn, T-Dog, and Daryl would go back to the city. Rick had asked me to join him but after hearing Shane talking about how they would be leaving the group defenceless I had decided to stay to try and ease some of the unrest. That and when Rick asked Alex had stomped up to him and told him no. I personally didn't want to be in an enclosed space with Daryl Dixon, he wasn't as bad as his brother who came up with crude comments every five seconds. He was different but still had some issues. I doubt he would want me there anyway. Not only would they be going back for Merle but for the bag of guns Rick had dropped and a walkie talkie that he was going to use to communicate with a man called Morgan.

I left Alex to play with Carl and Sofia after officially introducing them to one another. This gave me time to talk to Rick before they left. I found him and the others by the van asking Dale if they could borrow a pair of bolt clippers for the chain and handcuffs. Dale was reluctant to give them considering that they left his tools behind on the roof with Merle. In exchange for the cutters, Dale was allowed the first pick of the guns that were brought back and the radiator hose from the cube van.

"Come on let's go!" Daryl shouts impatiently from the back of the van.

"Be careful out there." I tell Rick and T, "Don't let Daryl do anything stupid either."

"Sure thing." T agrees.

Both of them walk to the van, "Hey, Rick!" I call and he turns around, "No more chasing helicopters, okay?" I say with a reassuring smile on my face.

He smiles back, "Look after the others." He orders me to which I give a mock salute. I step back and stand beside Shane as the van drives away and out of sight.

* * *

"All right let's do this the old fashioned way." Shane tells the boys. Shane asked if Alex would like to catch some frogs with him and Carl and I had quickly agreed, deciding that Alex needed to spend some time just being a kid and doing kid stuff. I had taken some of my clothes down to the lake to wash so I could keep an eye on Alex. Washing the dirt off of the clothes had proven to be quite therapeutic and helped to keep my mind off of Rick, Glenn, T-Dog and more importantly Daryl Dixon.

"All I'm gonna do is go after one of them, all right, scare the rest of them. They'll scatter and I'll drive them your way." Shane says to which Carl gives a definite nod whereas Alex stands there a little bit dumbfounded. Luckily Shane seems to notice, "Catch them if you see them, okay Alex?"

"Okay." Alex says shyly.

"You boys with me?" Shane asks with a smile growing on his face.

By now I had already stopped washing to study the trio in the water with their buckets at the ready both boys replied with a very enthusiastic and excited yes, Alex being a few years younger than Carl started bouncing up and down in the water and started laughing when Shane gave his 'mean face.'

"Hells yeah. Gimme your mean face." He demands.

Both boys try and look mean but honestly their too excited and their smiles show through which causes me to laugh, Shane looks back at me and smiles then faces the boys again. He carries on asking them if their ready until their almost shouting that they are.

"Here we go boys." Shane says and stands very still in the water, both boys mimic his action and watch him intensely and then Shane pounces into the water completely soaked when he resurfaces, "Go on catch them! Cath them frogs!"

Alex and Carl laugh while they swoop their nets and buckets around in the water in a hurry to catch the frogs, Shane keeps yelling his encouragement to the two and splashing about in the water. I place my clothes down on the floor in their basket and jog over to the boys.

"Come on boys keep going!" I yell. Alex laughs and quickens his motions.

"Come one lets's see what you got!" Shane yells over the splashing.

Carl lifts his net out of the water first to see that he's caught nothing and his smile dwindles, Alex lifts his bucket out of the water and gasps, "I got a frog! Reia look!" He exclaims and turns around with the biggest smile on his face that I've ever seen, I slip off my boots and sock and walk into the water to peer into the bucket and sure enough at the bottom is a very small frog. "I got it, I got it!" He tells me.

I laugh and smile, "Yes you did! Well done sweetie."

Carl drops his net in the water and looks over Alex's shoulder, "It's so slimy! Shane come see!"

Shane waded through the water and looked down at the frog in the bucket, "well that there is the smallest frog I have ever seen. May as well put it back." He says.

"Can we keep it?" Carl asks Shane.

"Yeah! We can have it, yes Reia?" Alex says hopefully and looks up at me with those puppy dog eyes.

I look at Shane who has a small smirk on his face, "Uh, I guess we could keep it for a little while. Only if you boys promise to put it back." I say sheepishly.

"Yes!" both boys yell and start talking about naming the frog.

"This one's on you." I tell Shane who simply laughs. I hear laughter ring out from across the lake and see Jacqui, Andrea, Amy and Carol laughing while doing the washing. I smile at them and wave, "Todays a good day."

"Yeah, haven't had one of those in a while." Shane says a bit seriously.

I smile sympathetically at him, "Thank you for asking Alex to join you. He needed this."

"I figured as much." Shane says and watches the boys reach into the bucket run their hands over their frog. "It's good what you're doing for him. Taking him in, like all boys he needs someone to look up to. When Rick was gone Carl was devastated and it was my job to guide him." He says quietly.

"And now?" I ask, he speaks almost sorrowfully at the fact that Rick is back to be there for his son. Shane looks thoughtful before opening and closing his mouth-

"Carl! What did I tell you about staying in Dale's sight?" Lori calls, Carl and Alex look up from their new pet and walk out of the water. Carl hands the bucket back to Alex and sits on a rock beside Shane while Alex comes over to me with a smile still on his face.

"But Shane said we could catch frogs-

"It doesn't matter what Shane says. It matters what I say. Get back to camp. I'll be right behind you." Carl sighs but follows his mother's orders.

"Bye Alex." Carl mumbles and walks past his friend and Lori follows.

I look between Lori and Shane and feel the tension in the air, "I gotta say, I do not think you should be taking this out on him." He states.

Yeah, definitely awkward. I swiftly turn Alex around and walk him away from the pair and pick up my boots, "So what are you going to call it?" I ask Alex and gesture to the frog, Alex proceeds to list off a bunch of names but I can still hear Shane and Lori talking so I walk faster. Lori seems to be dropping her shit at Shane's door today, I wonder what that's all about. I look up to the small group of women and decide to stroll over to help them out. Ed stands behind them and watches them all as they work. Pfft he's such a twat, I could tell he was someone that I wouldn't get on with when he threw that log on the campfire.

"Reia, can I play with my frog?" Alex asks me when he notices me heading towards the women washing clothes, looks like he doesn't want to do chores today.

I smirk back at him, "Okay, but you stay where I can see you."

Alex nods his head and sits down with the bucket in between his legs and I continue on to the women, "Hey." I greet them all, they respond with a quiet hello and I see Andreas eyes flicker to Ed in irritation. "Ed." I say and nod my head out of politeness, however, he doesn't respond and just carries on taking a drag from his cigarette while staring intensely at Carols back.

Andrea huffs and stands up, "I tell you what Ed, you don't like the way your laundries done you are welcome to pitch in and do it yourself." She says flatly, "Here!" she chucks a wet piece of clothing at him which he immediately throws back in her face.

"Ain't my job, missy." He says in an intimidating voice.

Carol quickly steps forward and places her hand on Andreas back, "Andrea don't."

Andrea just shrugs her off, "What is your job, Ed? Sitting on your ass smoking cigarettes?" she fires back.

Ed takes another drag from said cigarette, "Well it sure as hell ain't listening to some uppity smart-mouthed bitch. Come on, let's go." He barks at Andrea and Carol.

"You can't talk to her like that!" I yell at him, Ed stares me down- quite literally I was only 5'2 and the shortest out of the women here, Ed towered over me.

"I don't think she needs to go anywhere with you Ed." Andrea points out and stands by my side as we both face him off.

"It's none of your business. Now come on, you heard me." He snaps his patience is clearly growing thin.

I place my hand on the hilt of my sword and Ed's eyes follow my action, "She's not a dog who comes at your every beck and call." I spit at him.

"Girls, please. It doesn't matter." I hear Carol sniffle from behind us, in my peripheral I see Andrea turn around and place a hand on Carol's shoulder but I remain staring up at Ed's worthless face.

"Hey, don't think I won't knock you on your ass just 'cause your some tea-sipping, lady muck cooze alright? Now you come on now, or you're gonna regret it later." My jaw drops at Ed's words.

"So she can show up with fresh bruises later, Ed?" Jacqui says shaking her head, then the bastard thinks it's okay for him to laugh about it, "Yeah, we've seen them."

"Stay out of this. Now come on! This ain't none of y'alls business. You don't want keep prodding the bull here, now I am done talking." Ed says dangerously.

"Bull, huh? Does it make you feel like a man when you beat your wife? Does it make you feel big and strong when you beat someone that can't fight back? That doesn't make you a man, Ed. It makes you a no good piece of shit." I snarl at him

"Come on!" he shouts and snatches Carol by the arm and starts pulling her away we all start grabbing Carol to stop him from taking her away, "You don't tell me what, I tell you what!" he screams and backhands Carol across the face Amy starts pulling Carol behind us and Ed gets attacked by a series of slaps and clawing nails to the face. Suddenly Shane steps in and drags Ed away from us and Ed stumbles to the ground as Shane drags him along in the dirt. He drops the older man and starts punching him repeatedly and Carol can't hold back her cries, Shane keeps punching him as if he were possessed.

"Shane, Shane! Stop!" I scream, he's going to kill him if he carries on the others also start shouting at him.

"You put your hands on your wife, your little girl, or anybody else in this camp and I will not stop next time. Do you hear me, do you hear me?" he shouts into Ed's face.

Ed sputters out a yes and spits out blood.

"I'll beat you to death, Ed." He punches him again for good measure, Ed's barely conscious now and lays limply on the floor. Carols cries and screams at the sight of her husband while she's wrapped tightly in Andreas arms, Shane starts to back away and sees our shocked expressions on our faces. We're all silent as we watch him regain his breathing and leaves. Carol Runs over to Ed and repeatedly apologises. I look up to find Alex, he must have seen all of that. I freeze in place the banking is empty and he's nowhere in sight.

"Alex!" I shout and sprint away from the lakes edge, "Alex where are you!?"

Andrea runs up beside me, "He didn't run off did he?" she asks worriedly, "Alex!" she calls.

My heart started hammering out of my chest, "Alex!"

Oh God, where is he?

* * *

 **Hey, Guys! I know it's been a while but finally, the update is here! I wanted to update sooner but I have school, Rehearsals, Rugby and Work getting in the way. But I am adamant on one chapter a month at least. But I'm basically going to do one episode per chapter. So this was the longest chapter so far! (10,473 words) I'm a little bit proud of the word count.**

 **Gilyflower- sorry the update took so long, I hope you enjoy this lengthy chapter.**

 **Galwidanatitud- I know Alex was so scared in the last chapter! I can't wait for his character to really start to develop! it's going to be a bumpy ride for him.**

 **Thanks for fav and following this story! Also, I was thinking about changing the title because there are a load of WD stories with similar titles. As soon as I figure out how to do a poll your welcome to help me choose a new title! That all from me.**

 **Love and Light,**

 **Larissa xxx**


	5. Once Upon A December

**Chapter Five: Once Upon a December**

 _Someone holds me safe and warm, Horses prance through a silver storm_

 _Figures dancing gracefully across my memory._

 _Far away, long ago glowing dim as an ember things my heart used to know_

 _Things it yearns to remember._

 _And a song someone sings_

 _Once upon a December._

 _ **-Once Upon a December, Anastasia.**_

* * *

It had been hours since Alex had gone missing.

My only conclusion was that Shane had scared him when he was beating Ed so he ran away, and now… he's nowhere to be found. I had run back to camp hoping he was there but no one had seen him so we decided to send out small search parties, Dale was also keeping an eye out for him on top of his RV. All I can think is that he must have been terrified to have run away when there are deadheads around, and I hadn't even paid attention to him long enough to notice. Some guardian I am.

Andrea, Amy and Jacqui had come with me to look for Alex. It was hard to look for him when we had to stay quiet in case there were any deadheads lurking around in the trees which made it even harder to call for him. I was at my wit's end when the sun slowly started to set, we had been out here for ages with no clue as to where he had gone. He could be hurt, he could have gotten lost, he could be hiding, he could be-

No. Don't think like that he's going to be fine.

"What's that?" Amy asks and points at something on the forest floor, I follow her fingers and run towards the bucket on the floor.

"It's his bucket. Alex was here!" I exclaim with a mixture of relief and dread.

"Well that's good, we know we're going in the right direction," Andrea says.

"But it's not good enough, we need to keep looking," I tell them and start walking further ahead with the bucket in one hand and my sword in the other.

"Reia, I know you're worried about Alex but we can't carry on like this. It's getting dark soon we won't be able to see a thing in front of us." Jacqui tries to reason.

I turn around and squint my eyes at her, "So what we just leave? Leave a seven-year-old boy out here overnight and hope he comes wandering back into camp by the morning? I can't do that Jacqui. Please, just a little bit longer." I beg. The three women look at each other as if they were having a silent conversation.

Jacqui nods "Fine we'll stay a bit longer but we need to get back to camp as soon as possible." She says.

I don't answer her and instead turn back the way I was headed. We had spent another half hour searching when it really started to get dark and I knew we had to head back to camp, I tried to keep my hopes up by believing that one of the other search parties had found him. I stopped when I heard something rustling further ahead. I place the bucket on the floor carefully, not wanting to draw attention to our small group. The other women who were whispering to each other also ceased their chatter and looked in the direction in which the noise came from.

"Weapons at the ready, girls." I whisper and hold my sword further out in front of me.

I lead the women a few feet forwards, my feet barely make a sound on the forest floor as I tread forward on the balls of my feet. The rustling stops for a moment and then I hear small sniffles causing me to frown, it's too dark to see where the noise is coming from and too quiet to pin-point the sound. So all I can do is blindly walk forward.

"Alex?" I call out quietly.

The rustling, once again, stops.

I hold my breath and pray to God I get the answer I'm hoping for.

"Reia?"

"Alex! Alex where are you, good boy?" I call out and I can't help but raise my voice in my relief, I was more focused on the scared little boy who was supposed to be under my care and protection rather than the possible threats lurking around in the woods.

"Up here." I hear him cry.

I look up and squint my eyes, "He's in a tree do you see him?" I ask the others who all are looking up.

"Keep talking Alex. We can't see you very well." I order him.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have ran away." He sniffles, "I was scared, Reia!" He cries even more and my heart breaks at the sound but I could tell he was close by.

"Is that him?" Jacqui asks, she comes forward and blindly reaches up to the tree, Alex yelps when she manages to grab a hold of his foot in the dark, "Okay sweetie I got you, just jump and I'll catch you." She says in a motherly voice. I can hear Alex mumble a bit as if he were unsure.

"It's okay now Alex, jump." I encourage him.

I don't see him jump but I see Jacqui stumble a bit and then Alex is wrapped up in her arms, I sigh in relief and eagerly take the boy in my arms. I welcome the arms and legs that also tangle around my body. I can feel him shake a bit before he leans up to my ear, "I'm sorry." He whispers.

I shift him in my arms so that I can sheath my sword, then I run a hand through his soft hair more to comfort myself rather than him, "Don't apologise. Let's get back to camp and get you warmed up." I whisper back.

We managed to find our way back to camp with little difficulty even though it was dark out, Jacqui was the one to guide us. Soon enough I could hear the commotion from the camp and then I saw everyone handing out plates around the fire.

"We're back, we found him." Jacqui announces and the group cheers and claps for us.

Dale walks up to Alex and I "How about you settle him down in the RV tonight? It'll be a lot warmer than those flimsy old tents I can tell you." He says.

I smile at him, "Thank you, Dale, that would be greatly appreciated." Dale places a hand on Alex's shoulder and he flinches away from the contact, his action doesn't go unnoticed by Dale or myself. I send an apologetic look to the older man before walking towards the open door of the RV that's when Shane approaches us.

"Hey little man, you had everybody worried about you." He tells Alex with a smile on his face.

Alex whimpers and buries his head into my shoulder he starts to shake in my arms, "Shane this isn't a good time. He's tired and scared I'm going to go put him to bed." I tell him and try to walk around him but he stops me.

"Reia, look about earlier I-

"You scared him, Shane! Right now standing here talking to you isn't in his best interest. Now _move._ " I hiss at him, he just stands there staring at me before gulping and taking a step back. I walk the rest of the way up to the RV and step inside. I place Alex down on the bed in the back then I take off his muddy converse and leave them outside the RV. I walk back to Alex and pull back the covers he silently crawls under them and settles down. I lean forward and stroke his soft brown hair, a habit of mine that I noticed recently.

"You wanna talk about it?" I ask him quietly.

He shakes his head, no.

"Do you want a drink, something to eat?"

Another no.

"Stay?" he whispers.

I smile softly at him and lay down by the side of him. He turns towards me and I curl my body around his smaller one. It doesn't take long before I notice his breathing level out and I know he's asleep, my eyes droop as the noise from the camp is drowned out by the sound of Alex's peaceful breathing. It reminded me of when my baby brother Ryan was in hospital with a broken leg. He had rode a bike down a hill, I remember running after him down the steep slope of a street in Rhondda. I wasn't quick enough. I could only watch as he swerved away from a car and fell off of his bike before slamming into a wall. Mam and Dad had been at work at the time so I had to sit by his hospital bed while he slept until they came to the hospital. The calm and steady sound of his breathing was the only thing that made me feel less guilty for letting something bad happen to him.

I hold Alex a fraction tighter before I fall into a dreamless sleep.

….

The sound of the RV door opening wakes me up, I jump a little and grab for my sword out of instinct but then I see that it's just Amy.

"Hey." I whisper groggily to her and rub the sleep out of my eyes, "Do I smell food?" I ask her.

She laughs quietly and looks down at Alex's sleeping form, in her hands are two plates of fish which she places down on the table, "Thought I'd bring y'all some before everyone had more than their fair share. How is he?" she asks in a sympathetic voice.

I glance down at Alex, "Out for the count. I'm worried about him, Amy. I mean everyone was unnerved by Shane's actions today. I know he's just a kid and that it would affect him more but…"

"You think Alex might have seen violence before? At home?" she asks me.

I nod, "He flinched away from Dale earlier. There must have been something going on with him and his family before the world went to shit, Alex likes Dale he has no reason to be afraid of him. I found him in a car all alone. Who just leaves a seven-year-old boy alone when there're dead people walking around?" I ask her incredulously.

We're silent for a moment as we both look at Alex, "Whatever it is, I'm sure he'll tell you. When he's ready." Amy answers, "Anyway I have to go pee." She laughs.

Amy walks into the small bathroom and I look outside the RV window, the bushes are moving in the wind and I can hear laughter coming from the group and I smile at the sound before I notice that the trees aren't moving. There is no wind. So what's moving the bushes?

"Guys we're out of toilet paper!" Amy calls out.

My eyes are locked onto the bushes and I barley breath. A deadhead stumbles out of the darkness.

"Amy get inside!" I shout and jump up to the door just as a male deadhead grabs her arm. I grab her and yank her backwards into the RV just before he can bite her, the space between me and Amy is too small to draw my sword so I grab a Si from my belt and plunge it into the deadhead's eye. Amy and I fall back into the RV she scrambles back up and slams the door closed. Something thuds against the RV and I hear Alex scream from behind me.

"Alex be quiet! You need to be quiet or you'll draw them to us!" I exclaim, then I hear the group screaming and guns going off.

"Andrea!" Amy cries and she's about to open the door when I pull her back.

"You stay here with Alex! I'll get to your sister but you need to stay here and protect him. Take this." I give her the bloody Si, "Close the door after me and don't open it until I say… or if someone says it's safe. Do you understand?" I ask her quickly.

She nods her head vigorously and takes the Si. I draw my sword and exit the RV, the door closes behind me. There're deadheads everywhere, all I can hear are hungry growls and screams coming from all directions. I run up behind the deadheads and swing my sword cutting off their heads I had already run off to take down the others before their bodies even fell to the ground. Adrenaline pumps through my veins as I run towards the group while taking down as many deadheads as possible. I feel one slam into my back from behind so I jump forward and spin around with my sword arm extended, the blade slices through its skull and I'm running back towards the group again. I could see Carol holding Sophia to her side and trying to run to safety.

"Carol!" I scream, I run towards her and grab her arm she cries out thinking it's a deadhead but then realises it was just me, "Come with me! Run!" I drag her and Sophia back up towards the RV and bash my fist against the door. "Amy open up!" the door swung open almost catching me in the face but I quickly swing my head back out of the way. I shove Carol and her daughter through the door with enough force that they fall into the RV and run back down the small slope to help the others. Shane has Lori and Carl behind him and he's taking aim at the deadheads around camp.

"Everyone, get to the RV!" He shouts.

Suddenly, I'm knocked to the ground with a deadhead on top of me, I can't help but let out a scream as its jaws snap at me. Pieces of rotten flesh dangle down off of its face and it brushes my cheeks- it's enough to make me gag. In my panic to keep its mouth away from my flesh I drop my sword and hold it back with both hands, the deadhead is huge; much bigger than my small 5'2 frame and he was overweight so my struggling continued for what seemed like forever. I could feel my arms shaking underneath its enormous weight, I can hear growls off to my left and see another deadhead ambling its way towards me and I scream again. Something splashes across my face and my eyes screw shut. I take a breath in and open my eyes to see an arrow perfectly lodged in between the deadheads lifeless eyes. Without thinking I push him off of me and run towards my sword to deal with the other deadhead.

With my sword in hand I spin around, only to come face to face with Daryl Dixon.

* * *

 **Oooooh! Daryl is back!**

 **okay so first off I need to tell you all something! MY ENGLISH TEACHER IS READING MY FANFICTION!**

 **So I had wrote out a plan for this story and another one in the back of my English book and of course when I handed in my book she marked my work...But then saw what was in the back! But she really liked the ideas and wanted to read more and I was like "uh, nah" but then my friends and her kept pestering me about it so I literally just e-mailed it to her!**

 **I can't believe I sent my Fanfiction to my English teacher.**

 **Moving on, I know this is a short chapter but I've just had my exams and I wanted to give you all a little something to prove that I'm still alive and posting! :)**

 **TO MY LOVELY REVIEWERS WHO MAKE ME SMILE!:**

 **GALWIDANATITUDE: I know right! Kids are a handful and Arianwen is going to have her hands full with Alex! I really can't wait for them to go through everything together. I have plans for these two that I think you'll like :) Thanks for reviewing since the beginning of their journey! x**

 **Gilyflower: You have also been reviewing since the beginning and I am forever grateful for your kind words, thank you so much lovely! Alex is back where he belongs! :) x**

 **Eemmah: I hope you're still reading this as you reviewed as a guest. THANK YOU SO MUCH! I read your review after a very tiring and stressful 6-hour rehearsal and OMG YOU MADE ME SMILE AND LAUGH! I'm so glad you're really enjoying my story and i just can't even! yes, Alex is a little cutey! Again like I said to Galwidanatitude I have plans for them that you may love!**

 **Bakaneko7: ahhhhhh! I'm so sorry this update was late I hope this tides you over until the next one! I know right? Gotta love the cliff hangers (mmm I taste angst) anyway, Thanks for joining Arianwens journey!**

 **To all who favourited and followed you support means the world!**

 **Ben, I love you but I swear to God if you are reading this please stop...XD**

 **Until next time,**

 **Larissa xxx**


	6. Comfort in the Stars

**Chapter six: Comfort in the stars**

 _Starlight, Star bright_

 _First star I see tonight,_

 _Wish I may wish I might…_

* * *

"Hey, it's me!" Daryl shouts, "Where's your boy?" he asks quickly and takes aim at the other deadhead that was approaching.

"He's in the RV with Amy, Carol and Sophia," I yell over the noise, I come up to Daryl side and I spot Rick and the others forming a group to fight the dead. "C'mon, we need to get to the others."

We run over to the small group shooting and slashing at the deadheads as we go, once we fight our way over we join Ricks side and form a group. Everything just seems to blur past me in a mad frenzy of blood, guts and gore, all I felt was the need to survive.

"Carl!" Rick shouts over and over.

"Rick! Shane's taking them to the RV!" I yell and I kick a deadhead in the stomach to push it away before I pull my remaining Si out of my belt to plunge it through the deadheads eye. I look back and catch Rick's eye and nods at me, then we battle on. Soon enough everything slows back down and then we're all left shaking as the adrenaline quickly leaves us. Rick ran towards the RV where Carl was crying out for him, I looked him over and saw that there were no bites or scratches thank god.

"Hey." I hear a gruff voice call me and I turn to face Daryl, he looks me up and down "You good? No bites or nothin'?"

I shake my head and take in a shaky breath, "No, I'm fine. Just feel a bit sick that's all." I close my eyes, I can feel the sticky deadhead blood all over me and the smell of rotten flesh rests heavily in the air. I can still feel the way the flesh from that one deadhead's face dangled down carelessly and touched mine, "I think I'm gonna be sick." I feel a tightening in my stomach and my breath becomes short and quick, I drop to my knees and look up at the night sky. I hear Daryl's footsteps come closer to me and see him kneel before me, I take my eyes off the night sky for a second to look at him and then I look back up, desperately trying to find comfort in the stars.

"Just slow down, breath-

"Reia!" I hear Alex cry, I whip my head around and see Alex on the floor trying to hold Amy up against him. Tears run down his face and Amy's blood soaks into his clothes, my Jaw hangs open.

"Alex! Amy!" I scream.

I leave Daryl and my sword behind me and run to Alex on unsteady feet, the world tilts on an angle and I almost fall but catch myself. "Alex, baby." I cry and land next to him, I take Amy from his small arms and cradle her in my lap. She looks up at me with fearful clear blue eyes, there's blood all over her. I frantically look her over and see deep bite marks on her neck, arm and shoulder. I stroke her cheek and pay no mind to the blood. "Shhh, shhh." I try and soothe her through my own tears, she needs her sister. I look around and group.

"A-Andrea? Andrea!" I call out, a sob escapes me. I see a blonde head move through the crowd and then I see her stop dead in her tracks, "Andrea I'm sorry." I whisper.

Andrea drops down on the floor next to her sister, I stroke Amy's head one last time and plant a kiss on her forehead. I look at Andrea and place Amy down gently on the floor, Alex who sits next to me is crying uncontrollably so I pick him up and turn away from the two women on the floor. I spot Carl, Rick and Lori and walk over to them. Carl is in the same state as Alex, A sharp pain goes through the back of my head and I groan, I can feel my limbs becomes weak and slump to the ground with Alex.

"Reia?" Alex says my name worriedly and places his hands on my shoulders as I kneel before him, His tears have stopped and a new found fear enters his warm brown eyes. _Fuck that hurts._ I put my hand up to the back of my head and the pain intensifies as my hand makes contact. I wince and pull my hand back, I blink a few times as my eyes won't seem to focus properly.

Red.

 _Is that? Is that my blood or Amy's?_

"Woah! Grab her!" A man's voice shouts.

I can feel myself falling backwards and into someone's waiting arms. My head lols to the side and my eyes happen to land on the two sisters ahead of me, and then I see nothing at all.

* * *

 **Hey! This is a tiny Chapter because I want to do one episode per chapter from now on and this was the last little bit of the episode. I am currently writing chapter seven so it will be up very soon!**

 **My Awesome reviewers I will continue to say thank you for your on-going support and kind words!**

 **Galwidanatitud-** **You might be onto something there! Thanks for another review! ;)**

 **Guest** **\- Thank you so much! I told her you said she was cool and she said: "I know!" I love her to bits! Thank you so much for your kind words and I hope you're still reading as it's been a while!**

 **Hold tight for the NEXT CHAPTER! IT WILL BE A LONG ONE!**

 **Larissa x**


	7. Arianwen

**Chapter Seven: Arianwen**

 _Do you hear the people sing? Lost in the valley of the night._

 _It is the music of the people who are climbing to the light,_

 _For the wretched of the Earth there is a flame that never dies_

 _Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise…_

 _-epilogue, Les Miserables_

* * *

The first thing I was aware of was a steady pounding in the back of my head, then I could hear hushed voices around me. But I couldn't for the life of me figure out what had happened. I try to open my eyes but they feel as though they are glued shut. So I lay still and just become more aware of my surroundings, the feeling in my limbs comes back but they feel too heavy to move. I think I'm lying on a bed of some sort.

After what seems like forever I try again to open my eyes and I groan a little as I do, _why is this so damn hard?_

"Look, I think she's waking up." A deep voice with a southern drawl says. Then two small, soft hands take one of my own, I squeeze back ever so slightly and hear a small gasp.

"Reia?" A little voice asks.

My eyes crack open the slightest and though my sight is blurry I see a young boy sitting before me.

"Ryan?" I smile and a tear falls down my cheek, the little boy looks back at someone behind him before looking back at me, his face becomes more focused and I realise it isn't my baby brother. I frown and become confused, _why am I here?_

Two people behind the young boy come closer, a man and a woman. The woman has long brown hair and places her hand on the little boy's shoulder while the man comes closer again and sits down on the floor next to me. He looks familiar, this tent looks familiar and the little boy sure as hell looks familiar. _Why the fuck is my brain so muddled right now?_

I start to panic and the man before me seems to notice.

"It's okay, you're okay." He says in a soothing voice, "You hit your head last night when you fell, do you remember?" he asks me.

I know him, I _know_ that I know him. Think Reia, think!

"Rick." I whisper more to myself.

He smiles, "Yeah that's right, I'm Rick. And who's this?" he asks me and points to the little boy.

I take him in completely now that my vision is back, the boy still holds my hand in his and looks at me hopefully with a small smile on his face as if he were shy, his brown eyes bore into mine- they're the colour of melted chocolate. His light brown floppy hair sticks up in a few places. _That's definitely not Ryan._

"Alex." I smile at him, his face lights up and he beams at me.

"And who are you?" Rick asks.

I move my other hand to grasp Alex's, "Arianwen Faye." I answer without thinking. Alex gasps and then grins, the woman-Lori- also smiles and I realise my mistake. I cover my eyes with one hand and groan.

"Oh bloody hell don't tell anyone, will you?" I ask pleadingly. Rick offers a small smile before turning serious and I wonder what causes his change in demeanour. "What's wrong?" I ask.

I look at all three of them and they all look down, deflated. There's silence and nobody answers me, it's as though they are waiting for me to piece everything together so I think back to last night.

 _Walkers._

 _Protecting Alex and Amy._

 _Fighting._

 _Daryl._

 _Blood._

 _Amy._

"Oh." I pause, "I remember now." I whisper, Alex crawls forward and wraps his arms around me in a tight embrace, I breathe a sigh. At least I didn't lose him "What about Andrea, how is she doing?" I ask Lori.

The brunette shakes her head sadly, "She won't leave Amy's body, but if we don't do something soon Amy will…" she trails off, "I've tried talking to her but I just can't seem to get through to her."

 _Poor Andrea…_ I look up at Rick, "Am I good to get up?" I ask

He nods, "Yeah just take it easy okay? We're out there moving the dead to be buried, you can help out if you want- I just don't recommend you doing any heavy lifting at the moment." Well, that's good news, I might be able to talk to Andrea. I feel Alex shake my arm to get my attention.

"What is it?" I ask him softly.

He pulls a face and thinks before he speaks, "Please don't go out there, I don't want to go there or be alone." He says and I smile at his sweet innocent face.

"I have to help Andrea and the others, darling. She's upset and needs someone right now." I plead with him.

Loris pipes up, "He can come over to our tent, I'm keeping Carl out the way of everybody else. Their kids they don't need to see what's out there." I nod my head in agreement.

I sit up and the pain in my head is almost gone, other than feeling a little out of sorts I feel fine and ready to go, "Ok good boy, you're going to go with Lori and she'll look after you. Don't wander off like last time. If you need me ask Lori to come get me, don't go by yourself. Got it?" I ask him.

He looks slightly confused, "hmm… what does wander mean?" he asks quietly.

"It means don't walk away from us, the group. To wander is to move, get it?" I ask again with a hopeful smile.

He nods his head with a serious expression on his face, "Stay with Lori and no wander." He says decidedly.

"Yeah no wander _ing."_ I correct and ruffle his hair.

Lori smiles, "I left you some clean clothes in the corner there along with your sword, right Alex how about we leave Reia to get on and we'll go see what Carls up to." She stands and places her hands on his shoulders before they leave the tent, Alex turns around one last time and I offer him a reassuring smile.

Rick nods at me, "see you out there. And remember if you feel dizzy or your head starts to hurt let one of us know straight away." He tells me in what sounds like a fatherly voice and leaves before I can answer. Once the tent is empty I carefully get up and go about getting dressed, it's a relief once I've changed out of my old bloody clothes, I decided to leave my hair down so that the bobble didn't pull the hair on my already tender scalp. Once I'm dressed I strap my belt on and exit the tent.

In the light of day the scene before me looks horrific, Glen and T struggle together to throw a deadhead- _a walker-_ on a pile of burning bodies. Almost everyone is covered in dirt, blood and soot from the fires. I look around at the people walking around and see that there was less of us left in the group now, many were taken down last night by the walkers. I spot Dale, Rick, Shane and Carol and march over to them.

"Reia, it's good to see you're alright." Dale tells me.

I offer a sad smile and follow all three of their gazes and see Andrea still quietly kneeling over Amy's body, "She still won't move?" I ask them quietly.

"No," Carol answers, "she won't even talk to us." I close my eyes and see Amy's frightened blue ones looking back at me, I snap my eyes open.

"We have to do something, she's been there all night. What do we do?" Carol asks me.

I shake my head, "I-I don't know. If we pull something we'll just upset Andrea more."

"We can't leave Amy like that, we need to deal with it." Shane says quietly and I bristle at his words.

Rick walks forward, "I'll tell her how it is." He says.

I quickly grab his arm, "Are you sure that the right thing to do? Maybe I should go."

"And how would you help?" Shane asks sharply.

I spin around and squint at him, "Oh piss off, Shane-

I hear a gun cock and turn around to see Andrea pointing her gun at Rick. He holds his hands up and slowly backs away while Andrea keeps her gun on him. I turn back to Shane I raise my eyebrows at him in an _I told you so_ manner. Rick comes back to us and I see none other than Daryl Dixon walking towards us all as well, he glances at Andrea and shakes his head,

"That dead girl's a time bomb." He says not so quietly and I cringe, Andrea would most likely hear all of this.

"And what do you suggest?" I ask him in a quieter voice so as not to be heard.

Daryl steps towards me and looks harshly into my eyes, "take the shot." He says as if it's obvious, "Clean in the brain from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance."

My eyes widen, "And traumatise Andrea further? Hell no." I say strongly and glare back at him, _what's his problem? Last night he was just starting to seem okay why does he have to be a dick about this?_

"For God's sake let her be." I hear Lori say, I look at her questioningly and she catches my eyes, "Jacqui's got the boys, they're fine." She tells me and sits down next to Carol.

We all look at each other still not knowing what to do, I avoid looking at Shane and then notice that Daryl is still staring at me I frown and shrug at him and he averts his eyes, he grunts and gives everyone a once over before turning around and walking away. He walks over to Morales who's trying to lift a body of one of the group members, I watch as he lifts the body and starts dragging it towards one of the numerous bonfires for the walkers. Glenn to see's this and rushes towards the pair, "Hey! What are you doing? This is for geeks." He tells them but they carry on, "Our people go over there!" he raises his voice and points at the line of bodies.

Daryl huffs, "What's the difference, man? They're all infected."

Glenn blocks their path, "Our people go over there." He says more forcefully, "We don't burn them!" he shouts and I hear his voice shake, "we bury them, understand?" Daryl stares at him in silence, "Our people go in that row over there." Glenn once again points over at the bodies.

Daryl and Morales each pick up one arm again and drag the body to the row and pass the RV where Andrea sits by Amy. Daryl looks at her and then back to Glenn, "You reap what you sow." He says spitefully and drops the body.

Morales gives him a disbelieving look, "You know what? Shut up man."

Daryl marches away from him and shouts at us, "Y'all left my brother for dead! You had this coming!"

I look down at the floor and then back up at Daryl's retreating form, "for fuck sake." I mumble and break into a jog after Daryl.

"Daryl," I call out but he doesn't turn around, "Daryl! Just stop for a second!"

He turns and looks pissed, "What?" he snaps at me.

I try to hold back my eye roll at his attitude, "Look I'm sorry about Merle okay, I didn't realise he wasn't back with you last night-

"Oh, you're sorry?" He asks me, "weren't you one of the ones that left him in the first place?" he shouts.

 _Fine then "_ Okay let's get one thing clear, your brother was an arsehole okay? We had no other choice but to handcuff him. He was letting off shots on that roof practically ringing a damn dinner bell, he was starting fights and quite literally spat on me! Oh, and did I forget to mention the fact that when facing a life or death situation he couldn't let go of his racist ass views!" I shout back and I see Daryl pipe up and raise my hands, "but, despite all of that he's still your _brother_. He's still family and I know how it feels to lose that. When I say that I'm sorry I truly am when we were in the van driving away I realised then that he wasn't there and it was too late to go back, I was sorry then and I'm sorry now." I ended quietly and tried to convey to him that I was genuine.

The man in front of me just stares at me before asking quietly, "You got a brother?" he asks.

I smile slightly, "Yeah. Yeah, I do." I sigh and look at the ground, "anyway I just wanted to say sorry. I'm going to go back and check on Alex." I walk back down to the small group I came from and they all stare at me, "What?" I ask completely dumbfounded, no one replies and I just shake my head and walk past them and go on my way to Rick and Lori's tent to see the boys. I step inside and see the boys hunched over a comic book with Jacqui sitting next to them, "Hey, I'm not much help out there. I figured I could look over these two for a bit." Jacqui stands and thanks me on her way out. I sit down next to the boys and see that they're reading a Spiderman comic book.

"What are you doing then?" I ask them.

Carl looks up, "I figured Alex could learn more English if he read with me. And it gives us something to do."

I smile at the boys and try to forget about what's happening outside this tent, "That sounds like a great idea, mind if I join you?"

* * *

Around fifteen minutes later I hear shouting coming from outside the tent and surprise, surprise it sounds like Daryl Dixon. The three of us look up at each other and I look at the exit of the tent and breathe a sigh.

I look back at the boys and I'm met with two curious expressions, "You two stay here. I'm going to see what all the commotion is about." I get up and hear Alex ask Carl what 'commotion' means but I leave the tent before I can hear Carl's reply.

The sight in front of me is surprising yet also almost unsurprising as Rick holds a gun to Daryl's head, I rush over to the group and see the shocked expressions on everyone's faces.

"What's happened?" I ask no one in particular, ahead of the group by the RV is Jim, Shane, Rick and Daryl. Shane stands protectively in front of Jim.

"Jim got bit last night." Jacqui tell me and I gasp.

I look at the small group of men ahead of us, "We don't. kill. The living." Rick enunciates slowly with a hard expression on his face.

Daryl glares back, "That's funny coming from the guy with a gun to my head."

I march up to the four of them, "Daryl come on look at him. Look at Jim, right now he's fine see? We have time to discuss this and figure out what to do." I tell him, "We shouldn't go rushing into this. Can you please put the damn pick axe down now?" I ask calmly.

Daryl huffs at me but drops the axe and walks past me but not without bumping into my shoulder on the way, I roll my eyes at his antics. Shane picks up the dropped axe and nods at me before also leaving, I lock eyes with Rick and we each help Jim up.

"Where are you taking me?" Jim asks nervously.

"Somewhere safe." Is Rick's vague response as we walk around the RV.

I see that Jim is sweating now either from the bite or the heavy lifting in the sun…most likely the bite, "How about somewhere in the shade?" I suggest and give him a kind smile, "The RV perhaps?"

* * *

Once Jim was settled in the RV I held a cold damp flannel to his brow and passed him a bottle of water. He took it gratefully and eagerly drank the water, "You're going to be fine, Rick will figure out a way to help you." I tell him, and move the flannel from his forehead to his neck and wipe away the sweat, my fingers brushed his skin and I could feel that he was hot to the touch. I tried to ignore the fever that was quickly taking over and remain calm.

"Thank you for your kindness Reia, and for the way you handled Daryl." He says and gives me a tired smile.

I chuckle, "I don't think anyone really handles a Dixon do you?"

He smiles and closes his eyes for a moment and we're left in silence, "Will…Will you tell me about yourself?" he asks quietly with his eyes still closed.

I'm taken aback for a moment before I ask, "What would you like to know?" I ask him.

"Tell me about your home." He says and opens his eyes.

I rest the flannel on his brow once again and take his hand in mine, "well, home for me is about 4000 miles away believe it or not." I smile and he laughs.

"With that accent of course it is." He says.

I smirk at him, "I come from a small town called Tonypandy, and it's in the Rhondda. The Rhondda in Wales is also called the valleys, people always complained that there was nothing there, but for everyone who lived there no matter where they went in the world the valleys was always dear to their heart. My mam used to say everyone knew everything about everyone in the valleys." I stop and smile at the memories of my mother, I take a breath before I continue on, "It was always beautiful up there, the valleys is exactly what you would expect: mountains, hills, rivers and lakes. All the streets went up and down the mountains and upon great steep hills- the houses looked small and crammed together, but no one cared. Families there went back generations, it was a tight-knit community and everyone looked out for each other. Of course, with everyone so close there was always gossip of some sort going about."

I laugh and a tear falls down my cheek, "I lived in a small house with my Mam, Dad and baby Brother. One time a rumour went around that my mam was practising to go Britain's got talent, truth is she liked going on the karaoke when she had friends over from work for a couple of drinks. I kept telling her that the neighbours would hear her but she was having none of it!" I stop and wipe my eyes, "she'd say 'nonsense the walls are thick they won't hear a thing!'"

I sigh, "I remember one year in 2005 I think, I woke up to see this huge white cross on Trealaw Mountain. People would scatter ashes up there and one man had gone up there overnight and removed all the fern from the rocks and painted them white. Well, some say it was paint and others said it was stone. I'm not religious myself but I admired what the man had done, he made a perfectly proportional cross to overlook the valleys."

I sat in silence for a moment and Jim asked another question, "How did you come to Georgia then?"

I wince a little, "Well after a while mam and dad started arguing a lot and decided to break things off, get a divorce. Dad moved all the way out to Georgia and Mam stayed in Wales. Dad had family out in Georgia and wanted a fresh start. You know this was my first time visiting the states too…"

"What happened to him?" Jim asks seriously.

I drop my head, "I don't know… the first week here was great and then the news reports started coming in, one morning people were packing up and leaving but my dad had gone out to work. I stayed there at the house and waited as long as I could for him but he never showed. I waited for days in that house and then I decided it was time to pack up and move."

Jim nods his head in understanding, "And…and how did you get the sword?" he asks.

I smirk at the fonder memory, "We always said that Dad had this obsession with myths and legends, I don't know if you know but there are lots of links with Wales and the story of King Arthur, Merlin and Camelot. I don't for the life of me know how we came to have the sword in our family but it was always sitting on top of the fire in our home in Wales. He took the sword with him to America." I laugh, "He used to tell me the sword was Excalibur. When I left the house I went back for it, I figured it wouldn't be good to use because I thought it was more for decoration; But when I unsheathed it and felt its weight I knew it was an actual sword which was pretty unbelievable. I know now though that even if it wasn't real…I don't think I could have parted with it." I look up at Jim and see that his eyes are closed again and his breathing is steady, he looks peaceful so I carefully get up off of the bed and stand. Just as I'm about to take a step a gunshot rings out and I jump, I look back at Jim but he's still asleep. I close my eyes, _Amy._

I get out of the RV and see Andrea holding Amy's pale face in her hands. I slowly walk up to her and kneel down next to her, I place my hand lightly on Andrea's shoulder.

"I…I'm so sorry Andrea." I whisper, "I tried…"

Andrea looks at me for a long time before nodding and looking back down at her sister.

* * *

After helping Andrea wrap up Amy's body in a white cloth I go back to get Alex, all the bodies of the group members were loaded up onto a truck and taken up to the site where Jim had dug all the holes. Now that the bodies had been wrapped the children were allowed to come with us so that we could all pay our respects.

The men seemed to have been arguing about something again when we arrived, "There are no rules anymore." Rick says to Daryl and I frown, wondering what they could possibly have been talking about.

Loris steps up to the front, "That the problem." She said, "We need time to mourn and bury our dead. It's what _people_ do." She says and turns away from them.

We all silently lined up and watched Andrea drag Amy's body out of the truck and to one of the graves, Dale walked by her side wanting to help her but she wouldn't let anyone help her. Alex had his arms around my midsection as he watched and I had my arm around his shoulder. It was hard to watch as Andrea reached the hole and cried to Dale when He tried to help, "I can do it, I-I can do it." Amy's blonde hair slipped out of the wrap and Andrea stroked it gently as she tried to lower her sister gently into the grave. I placed my hand over my mouth to stop the noise from escaping as Andrea barely held back her frustrated sobs. When she finally finished she fell into Dales awaiting arms and tried to keep herself together.

Once everyone was buried we all made our way back to camp and I held tightly onto Alex's hand, everyone was silent. I was walking behind Rick Carl and Lori, Rick was whispering something to Lori when they came to a stop. Carl was still sniffling slightly and I looked at the young boy with sympathy as Rick knelt before his son, "Are we safe now dad?" the little boy asks and his lower lip wobbles.

"I won't leave again, I promise you that- not for anything." Carl lets out a relieved breath and nods his head, "now, give me a chance to discuss some things with you mom okay?"

I pipe up, "I'll take him back to camp." Carl smiles at me and wipes away his tears, I walk around the two parents and offer my free hand to him and he takes it, I turn my head and nod at Rick who thanks me, then I let the boys lead me back to camp. I soon get Carl talking about comic books that he's read to distract the two of them.

As it got later on in the day the group sat in a circle around the fire again, Andrea was asleep curled up with a blanket, Lori was sharpening a stick with her small hand knife while myself, Alex and Carl looked over a French to English dictionary, everyone else was sitting in silence still getting over what had happened last night. I watched the boys make up sentences for Alex to say and learn and laughed when Carl tried to use the dictionary to speak French, I marvelled at how close the boys had already become despite their age difference. I was happy to know that someday they would look out for each other. It wasn't long before Rick, Shane and Dale marched back into camp.

"Alright, listen up. I've uh…I've been thinking about Ricks plan." Shane says, "Look there are no guarantees, either way, I'll be the first one to admit that. I've known this man a long time, I trust his instincts." Shane looks at Rick for a long time and it almost gets uncomfortable, his eyes flicker over at Lori before going back to his friend. _Shit like this really creeps me about Shane._ I squint my eyes at him. "Now I say the most important thing is that we all stick together. So for those of you that agree we leave first thing tomorrow morning, Ok?" I watch Lori's shocked expression when she looks at Shane.

 _Why the fuck are they so weird around each other? They were odd at the lake too…_

Not before long I decide that Alex and I should have an early night if we were to be rolling out the next morning. As we were settled down in our small tent Alex turns around and faces me.

"Reia, where are we going?" He asks me in a sleepy voice.

I bring my hand up to stroke his brown hair back from his face, "We're going to a place where we can get help for Jim. It's called the CDC, it stands for centre for disease control. Disease kind of means sick, and Jim's sick."

Alex nods his head and closes his eyes, "will we be safe there?"

"I hope so darling, I hope so." I sigh, "You're going to have to be a brave boy tomorrow. Goodnight." I kiss his forehead and close my eyes.

* * *

I leant against one of the trucks as Shane told everyone what was what _as usual._

Alex and Carl sat on the bonnet of the truck and listened to Shane, though I still noticed that Alex's eyes wouldn't quite settle on the older man for long.

"Now if you got a problem and the CB can't get a signal, hit your horn one time and that'll stop the caravan. Any questions?" Shane asks.

I look around the group and then Morales steps forward, "we're not going." He states.

We all look shocked and Morales's wife speaks, "We have family in Birmingham, we want to be with our people."

"You won't have anyone to watch your back." Shane tells them.

"We'll take the chance, I have to do what's best for my family. We've talked about it and we're sure." Morales tells everyone. Rick and Shane hand Morales a Gun and a half full box of ammo, everyone starts getting upset to hear about the families departure. I leave the truck to say my goodbyes I surprise Morales with a hug.

"You're a good man Morales," I tell him and pull back, "Good luck out there." I turn and take my place next to Alex again. Morales and his wife thank everyone and Lori hugs her as the woman starts to cry. His kids say goodbye to Sophia, Carl and even Alex. Once the goodbyes are over Shane ushers everyone to make a move.

Alex and I make our way over to Daryl's truck seeing as everywhere else was full, I was surprised not to hear any complaints made by the red neck but all he does is nod at me as I throw my backpack into the back where Daryl's bike is. I help Alex up into the cab and squeeze in next to him. We spend the journey in silence, but it's not an uncomfortable one. It gives us all time for quiet reflection.

* * *

A couple of hours into our journey the RV breaks down, which is the last thing we need. Not to mention the fact that Jim's condition has gotten worse. I stand next to Daryl who has his crossbow out at the ready.

"I don't think he can take much more." Jacqui says to everyone.

"Shit." I whisper to myself.

Shane starts talking about driving up ahead to see if he can find a hose for the RV but as its Shane talking I tune him out and keep watch with Daryl.

A moment of silence passes until Daryl speaks, "I hear your boy ran off the other day." he says.

I look at Shane before answering Daryl, "Yeah. He saw Shane beat Ed to a pulp and ran off. It took us ages to find him."

Daryl nods, "He say why he ran off?" he asks me.

"No, but I have a hunch." Daryl gives me a look as if to say 'go on', "I found Alex on the highway when I made my way to Atlanta. He was locked in a car by himself, just left there for God knows how long. And the after the whole thing with Shane he just became so scared, I think…I think he might have been abused before all of this." I tell Daryl.

Daryl's silent again for a moment, "you talked to him about it?"

I shake my head, "No. Not yet anyway, there just hasn't been a right time."

"Well, you just keep doing what you're doing, you're good with him. He trusts you." Daryl's words take me by surprise.

"Thanks." I mumble and become even more confused.

I hear Rick come out of the RV, his expression is solemn, "Jim wants us to leave him here. He says it's what he wants." He tells us.

"And he's lucid?" Carol asks.

"He seems to be, yes." Rick answers and swipes a hand across his forehead.

I shake my head, "what we just leave him? On the side of the road for some walker to come find him?" I ask incredulously, "we're almost there right?"

We're all silent as we think this through "Back at camp when I said Daryl might be right and you shot me down…" Dale says and we all look at him, "you misunderstood. I would never go along with callously killing a man, but I was just going to suggest that we ask Jim what he wants. And it seems we have an answer." Dale says regretfully.

I shake my head, "But how do we just leave him here? How do we live with that?" I ask everyone.

"Reia I get that this is upsetting but it's not your call, it's not any of ours. This is for Jim to decide and he has." Lori says gently.

* * *

It takes Rick and Shane to get Jim out the RV and up a small hill, they sit him down under a tree. It's peaceful up here in the shade, the birds are whistling and a cool summer breeze dances through the trees. Jims gasping from the effort of being moved and sighs in relief once he's placed on the floor with his back leaning up against a tree.

He laughs lightly, "Would you look at that, another damn tree." He tries to joke.

I come up next to him and kneel by his side, I place my hand on his shoulder and feel that he's sweating through his clothes, "Jim…It doesn't have to be this way." I plead with him.

"No. It's good, the breeze feels nice." He says tiredly.

I smile at him through my tears, "Yeah it does doesn't it?" I say back shakily.

He opens his eye slowly and looks into mine, "Can… can you tell me what your name is now?" he chuckles and coughs.

I lean in closer, "Only if you can keep it a secret." I tell him with a smile and he nods I lean up to his ear and whisper softly, "Arianwen Faye…" I pull back and see him smile.

"That's… Pretty. Don't worry I'll take it to the grave." He jokes.

I cry a little and kiss his cheek before stepping back and looking away as I try to gain some control over my emotions. Jacqui walks past me and goes to see him next and I hear her say to him, "Just go to sleep sweetie, don't fight." Then I feel her come up next to me and put her arm around my shoulders, and we both silently hold back our tears.

Everyone says their goodbyes and I look up long enough to see Daryl give a silent nod to Jim, he then holds out his free hand to me, "C'mon" he says in a quiet voice that could almost be described as gentle. I take his hand and he helps me down the hill and back to the truck where Alex has fallen asleep. As we drive past I see Jim smile and look up at the sky.

* * *

We arrive near the CDC around nightfall, I can feel the nerves building and a sick feeling comes to my stomach. We all file out of our vehicles and make sure that we close the doors as quietly as we can so as not to attract any walkers. The first thing I notice when we step outside is the smell and the amount of flies buzzing about in the air, I swat a few away from my face and then my eyes land on the masses of rotting bodies scattering the floor and I gasp. I quietly draw my sword at the ready and take a hold of Alex's hand.

"Reia?" Alex says worriedly.

I let go of his hand to bring my finger to my lips, "shhh. Time to be brave." I say quietly and claim his hand again. I walk next to Daryl as we all form a group and walk towards the CDC, many of us start gagging and coughing at the smell and then they're told to keep quiet and to keep moving. Everyone's frantic to get to the CDC and we move as quickly as possible, the group becomes louder as the closer we get the worse the smell becomes, Alex stumbles over a dead body and I quickly yank on his arm to keep him from falling over on top of it. We quickly reach the entrance where the roller shutters are down which isn't comforting as we need to get in as soon as possible.

"Walkers!" Daryl alerts us and I turn to see a single walker in military uniform coming our way, the kids see him and cry out in fear, Daryl quickly takes the shot and stops the walker coming any closer. "You led us into a graveyard!" he snaps at Rick and I can't help but feel that he's right.

"He made a call!" Shane fires back and he and Daryl square up each other.

"It was the wrong damn call!" Daryl shouts, and he gets louder

Shane pushes him away, "just shut up! Rick this is a dead end!" he says and turns quickly on his friend.

"Where are we going to go?" Carol cries and clutches Sophia tighter to her.

Alex starts crying but I can't offer him any comfort at the moment, "Rick we need to get back to the vehicles, we're too exposed out here!" I try to reason.

Lori rushes to my side, "She's right. We can't be this close to the city after dark."

Shane frantically looks around at the group and then to Rick, "Fort Benning is still an option."

"On what!?" Andrea exclaims, "No food, no fuel. It's a 100 miles!" she clarifies.

Glenn steps up with his gun at the ready, "It's 125, I checked the map." He weighs in. _fuck. We're dead._

I turn back to Rick and he's still staring at the roller shutters, "Rick!" I shout.

He turns and faces everyone, "we need answers, now!" Lori yells at him.

"We'll think of something." He tries to calm everyone but it's most definitely not working, the children cry louder and someone shouts "let's go!"

"Everybody get back to the cars!" I yell and pull Alex along with me. I'm about to run with the rest of the group but we're interrupted by Rick.

"It moved!" he almost screams.

We all stop in our tracks and look up at the camera hopefully. "You imagined it." Dale says.

Rick walks back up to the entrance, "It moved." Shane tries to pull Rick away and I come up and inspect the camera, I move to the side of it and sure enough, it follows me.

"Ricks right! It moved!" I yell over to the people trying to get away but they won't listen. I bang my hand against the shutter and Rick does the same.

"I know you're in there! I know you can hear me! Please, we're desperate! We have women, children, no food and hardly any gas left!" He then starts screaming and I step back with Alex to get him out of the way, Alex turns and buries his face in my stomach, "You're killing us! You're killing us!" Shane grabs Rick and drags him away, I pick up Alex and run after the group. Then suddenly white light bursts from the entrance and we fall silent as the roller shutter opens.

* * *

 **Well hello again! I still can't get over how quick this update was! Can you believe we've almost finished season one?! Also, I just caught up on season seven and OMG I CANT! How are we going to survive life without the walking dead until October?**

 **Anyway, thank you all for fav and following my story and don't be shy to leave a review, they make my day that much better!**

 **Galwidanatitud-** **yeah just a slight concussion XD also yes I think that may have been genuine concern :3 I wrote up a scene a while back that might be in the next chapter or it will be an alternate one shot. But I think you'll love it!**

 **Thanks a bunch lovelies!**

 **Larissa xx**


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